The politics of institutional reform in in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina: the creation of the central bank and the police reform in a comparative perspective.

Abstract

This study explores and evaluates the international community’s role in institutional development and institutional reform within the BiH state building context. In particular, it seeks to identify the factors that have played a crucial role in shaping the outcome of reform processes. Though this quest is not a novel one - in fact, it has gathered a lot of scholarly attention in the past, significant knowledge gaps, undermining the international community’s efforts for sound institution building in situations of fragility, still exist. The present study, aims to make a contribution to this field of research and provide new insights, relevant to institutional reform processes in general, distilled out of Bosnia’s respective experience. In particular it seeks to address the following question; o Which are the general drivers of successful institutional reform in post-conflict environments?

To answer this question, the study engages in a comparative analysis of two particular aspects of institutional reform in BiH; i) the creation of the Central Bank of BiH (CBBH) and ii) the reform of the police. The rationale for the selection of the case studies is methodological. The study follows the “most different” approach to the comparative method according to which, examining two fundamentally different units of analysis, allows the clear identification of factors underpinning their variability. Indeed, the two selected reforms have yielded very different outcomes; the establishment of the CBBH has been, by general consensus, very successful in contrast to the police reform that has not produced substantial results.