The democratic restrictions in Bosnia-Herzegovina during 2018 : A study based on the seven institutional guarantees of Polyarchy

This study aims to investigate and identify the democratic restrictions in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2018. The country is internationally known for its burdensome history of war in the 1990s, however, Bosnia and Herzegovina seems to be in the process of developing. In addition to having one of the world’s most complicated political systems, the country’s efforts to improve their democracy have not been recognized. Therefore, the question at issue will be operationalized by utilizing the theory of polyarchy composed by Robert Dahl. This theory establishes seven institutions; elected political officials, free and fair elections, inclusive suffrage, the right to run for public office, freedom of expression, alternative sources of information and associational autonomy. These institutions will be examined using empiricism that has been developed with textual analysis. Moreover, the institutions will be analyzed to ascertain if these rights can be found within the Bosnian society. The results revealed that only one of the institutions, namely, “inclusive suffrage” is maintained in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Four of the remaining institutions, which are; elected political officials, free and fair elections, the right to run for public office and associational autonomy, were recognized as partially maintained. The last two institutions; the right to run for public office and alternative sources of information did not meet the requirements. Due to these results, it can be established that Bosnia and Herzegovina does not maintain all seven requirements of Dahl’s theory. Despite the country’s efforts to improve their democracy, the democratic process of Bosnia and Herzegovina seems to have ceased