Balkan Academic News Book Review 2/99

David Chandler, Bosnia. Faking Democracy after Dayton (London-Sterling,
VA.:Pluto Press, 1999).

There has been a marked difference between the attention Bosnia
received during the four year war and since by journalists and
academia. The unique experiment of a concerted effort of the
international community to insure the existence of state otherwise in
jeopardy has not only an impact on Bosnia itself, but on Kosovo and
potentially on future regions of Western intervention. In this light
David Chandlers attempts at filling an important gap. By documenting
the efforts of the international community to "democratize" Bosnia
since 1996, the author seeks to provide evidence that not only the
opposite has been achieved, but furthermore that the new
interventionist line taken in Bosnia, in particular since Carlos
Westendorp assumed the position of the High Representative in 1997, has
actually replaced democratization with external institutional
engineering.
First, Chandler discusses the impact of the theoretical debate on
democratization on Bosnia. He points to the general position, that
democratization requires more than merely free and fair elections. On
the basis of this assumption the international community engaged in
numerous fields, such as support for Media and NGO's to create
sustainable democratic development. The author then turns to the limits
the sovereignty Bosnia through the international control.
In the chapter on Power-Sharing he very aptly describes the process in
which the International administration enforced inter-ethnic
cooperation after the elections in 1996 and subsequently confirmed the
dominating role of the three national parties. In a chapter on Human
Rights Chandler maintains that the predominant role granted to human
rights is essentially exaggerated. He views the human rights abuses
since the end of the war as relatively minor and furthermore suggests
the highly problematic thesis that most refugees do not want to return
to their original homes (pp.106-108). Chandler points to the economic
situation in place of origin as a predominant reason for not returning.
When discussing the Media development, the author once more attempts to
argue against conventional wisdom by claiming that the absence of
non-national media is not caused by the lack thereof, but rather by the
lack of interest among the population. Similarly, the author describes
the work of most inter-ethnic NGO's as being out of touch with the
common people.(1)
The author, who teaches East European Development at the University of
Northumbria, suggests a less interventionist approach of the
international community in Bosnia and sees disengagement as a source of
potential democratization.
Many of the author's arguments sound intriguing as they seem to explain
the apparent lack of democratization of Bosnia, despite extensive and
expensive intervention of the international community. However, his
arguments are deeply flawed. The weakness of the book lies in its
omissions. While discussion democratization and its discourse in
regards to the wave of democratization in Eastern Europe in the past
decade, he makes no mention of the specific characteristics of
democracy in multiethnic societies. The biggest challenge of Bosnia is
how to give democratic institutions a form to accommodate all three
nations, a challenge mentioned only negatively by the author when
describing the international attempts to build (or enforce) coalitions
between the national parties. Neither Donald Horowitz, Arend Ljiphart
or Ted Gurr, just to mention a few political scientists who have
written on democracies in plural societies are mentioned. Thus, the
attempts of the international communities to forge inter-ethnic
cooperation seem undemocratic or even simply ridiculous, while they are
mostly belated and incoherent. Chandler rightly describes the ad-hoc
nature of these attempts. Instead of enforcing inter-ethnic cooperation
after the elections, the international community should have ensured
prior to elections by electoral laws, institutional arrangements etc.
that inter-ethnic cooperation is necessary.
Chandler also seems to be completely oblivious to the history of the
conflict and treats the three national parties with frightening
equality. He devotes a lot of space to the attempts of the
international administration to split the SDS and to weaken the
hard-liners (who he places frequently in quotation marks, as if they
were not) and describes the loss of sovereignty as a consequence of the
Republika Srpska. At the same time, he ignores the obstruction of the
Dayton agreement by the Serbian Democratic Party all too lightly and
pays virtually no attention to the continuing prevention of refugee
return to Eastern Bosnia by the SDS. In addition, he grants no great
importance to the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, as it
supposedly has only little impact on the population of Bosnia. The fact
that it serves the purpose of punishing war criminals, which should be
a good enough reason in itself for the existence of the court, evades
his attention. The absence of historical contextualization leave the
reader under the impression that the SDS is the victim of unjustified
Western intervention, when the behavior of the SDS (and the HDZ, as
well as partly the SDA) during was of Bosnia begs the question whether
democratization can be achieved with these parties. A party which
engaged in ethnic cleansing, murder and pillage against other nations,
monopolized the political and economic space within the own nation can
hardly be a player in a democratic Bosnia, with or without Western
engagement.
Similarly, the absence of political killings and abductions itself is
not to be interpreted as a sign of a good human rights record. The war
has largely homogenized the territories of Bosnia, leaving little room
for inter-ethnic conflicts. However, the return of refugees is the test
of human rights and here the record for most parts of Bosnia remains
dismal. Chandler names economic reasons for the trickle of refugees to
their former home, thereby neglecting that ethnicity and economy are
not separate spheres.(2) Jobs are hard to find as a minority and most
houses and apartments have been occupied in the mean time by refugees
of the other nation, making a return impossible. The freedom of the
media functions in large parts of Bosnia similarly to Croatia and
Serbia. While free and non-national media exists, it is constantly
attacked at treacherous by the nationalist media of the three parties
and taken to court on dubious charges. Buying an oppositional
newspaper is still a guarantee for trouble in parts of Bosnia. Chandler
remains thus on the surface and is fooled by the supposed freedom. The
author is correct to note that not all national parties and
organizations are destructive and deserve to be marginalized. In fact,
a multi-national country like Bosnia must enable political and cultural
expression to all national groups in order to assure its own survival.
The problem is only what these groups advocate and at least the three
big parties (and several others) have not had a good record in Bosnia
and will probably remain an obstacle to democratization in Bosnia.
Finally, David Chandler pays barely any attention the linkages between
Bosnia and its two neighbors. The intervention of the authoritarian
regimes Croatia and Serbia have both contributed to the slow progress
in democratization of Bosnia. The efforts of the international
organizations in Bosnia can only succeed if the neighbors succeed
themselves in democratizing, otherwise the institution building in
Bosnia will remain hollow and relying on international presence. The
failure of the international administration in intervening more
forcefully in the beginning of their presence in Bosnia actually might
have been the prime causes for the slow progress in Bosnia. Had war
criminals been arrested more swiftly and elections only held after a
two years, the extreme nationalists might have gathered less support
than they did in 1996. There is no reason to believe that less
intervention would have produced more democracy and justice for all
national groups, especially those in a minority, in Bosnia.
Occasionally, Chandlers usage of sources in problematic, he refers for
example to Diane Johnstone on the issue of the rape of women during the
war (pp. 96-97). Johnstone, who not an expert on the issue, has been
most noticeable in recent years by writing articles which reflect
undigested Serbian propaganda and contain half-facts and gross
distortions. On the other hand, Chandler makes no use of local sources
of information, even if they are available in English, such as the
excellent reports of AIM (Alternative Information Network) or the
reports of the different news agencies in Bosnia.
Chandler's book on Bosnia provides ample material on the role of the
international community in Bosnia. At times, the text is overwhelmed
with long quotes from reports and other-often irrelevant-materials from
international organizations active in Bosnia. His line of argument is
provocative and often poses the right questions while giving the wrong
answers. There still is a need for a book which would provide a more
balanced account of the political developments in Bosnia since 1996 and
the interrelationship of international administration with the local
political sphere.

1. On an alternative view on how the nationalist parties obstructed
human rights, the independence of the media and elections, see David
Campbell, Violence, Identity, National Deconstruction and Justice in
Bosnia (Minneapolis & London15:59 PM 1999.07.14: Minnesota University
Press, 1998), 221-225, 232-233.
2. See for example Drazen Simic, "Privatization According to National
Quotas. A Pile of Money for the Exchange of Power," AIM, 8.7.1999.


Florian Bieber, Budapest

(c) Balkan Academic News. This review may be distributed and
reproduced, if credit is given to the list and the author. Other book
reviews are welcome on this list.



===
________
Florian Bieber
Alsoerdosor utca 3
H-1074 Budapest

fbieber@...
www.all.at/fbieber
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Balkan Academic News
Subscribe: balkans-subscribe@egroups.com
Unsubscribe: balkans-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Home: http://www.egroups.com/list/balkans/