The politics of Bosnia and Herzegovina are defined by a parliamentary, representative democratic framework, where the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, named by the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Legislative power is vested in both the Council of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Members of the Parliamentary Assembly are chosen according to a proportional representation system. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The Party of Democratic Action is a Bosniak nationalist, conservative political party in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the two entities composing Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being Republika Srpska. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of ten autonomous cantons with their own governments and legislatures.
More than 96% of population of Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs to one of its three autochthonous constituent peoples : Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. The term constituent refers to the fact that these three ethnic groups are explicitly mentioned in the constitution, and that none of them can be considered a minority or immigrant. The most easily recognisable feature that distinguishes the three ethnic groups is their religion, with Bosniaks predominantly Muslim, Serbs predominantly Eastern Orthodox, and Croats Catholic.
The political divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina were created by the Dayton Agreement. The Agreement divides the country into two federal entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Republika Srpska (RS) and one condominium of the two entities named the Brčko District.
Four major international peace plans were proposed before and during the Bosnian War by European Community (EC) and United Nations (UN) diplomats before the conflict was settled by the Dayton Agreement in 1995.
The Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina was amended once, in 2009, to include the outcome of the Brčko District final award. Several constitutional reforms were attempted between 2006 and 2014, to ensure its compliance with the case law of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina and following cases regarding ethnic- and residence-based discrimination in passive electoral rights for the Presidency and House of Peoples. None of these attempts have been successful so far, notwithstanding EU involvement and conditionality.
Haris Silajdžić is a Bosnian politician and academic who served as the 5th Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2006 to 2010. He was the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1993 to 1996.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the governmental department which oversees the foreign relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Croatian National Assembly is a political organisation of Croat political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The organisation serves as a platform to coordinate political and cultural activities of different parties and stakeholders in the Croatian community and to promote the initiative to create a federal unit with Croatian majority in the country.
Senad Šepić is a Bosnian politician who is the current president of the Independent Bloc and has been serving as a member of the national House of Representatives since 12 January 2012. He was a member of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) until 2017. Šepić was a prominent critic of party leader Bakir Izetbegović.
The Dayton Agreement ended the Bosnian War and created the federal republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which consists of the Bosniak and Croat-inhabited Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Serb-inhabited Republika Srpska (RS). Although the Bosnian Serbs were viewed as "anti-Dayton" during the first years after the war, since 2000 they have been staunch supporters of the Dayton Agreement and the preservation of RS. Bosniaks generally view RS as illegitimate, and an independence referendum from BiH has been proposed in RS. The 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum and Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence have raised the possibility of a referendum and unification with Serbia. In 2015, after a judicial and police crisis, the governing Alliance of Independent Social Democrats said that it would hold an independence referendum in 2018 if RS's autonomy was not preserved.
A Bosniak republic, or Bosniak entity, was proposed during the Bosnian War when plans for the partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina were made. It would either be established as one of three ethnic states in a loose confederation, or as an independent "Bosniak state" in the area controlled by the Bosnian Army, as unofficially proposed by some Bosniak leaders. Thus, the Bosniak-inhabited territories or Bosnian Army-controlled area would become a Bosniak state, as Republika Srpska was for the Bosnian Serbs and Herzeg-Bosnia for the Bosnian Croats. The failed 1992 Serb–Croat Graz agreement would see a small Bosniak buffer state, pejoratively called "Alija's Pashaluk" on a map displayed during the discussions. The Owen-Stoltenberg plan would give Bosniaks 30% of territory, including ca. 65% of the Bosniak population .The Dayton Agreement ended the war and created the federal republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), made up of two entities, the Bosniak and Croat-inhabited Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), and the Serb-inhabited Republika Srpska (RS). As noted by international relations expert Niels van Willigen: "Whereas the Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs could identify themselves with Croatia or Serbia respectively, the absence of a Bosniak state made the Bosniaks firmly committed to Bosnia as a single political entity."
Around 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, 1 March 1992, a Bosnian Serb wedding procession in Sarajevo's old Muslim quarter of Baščaršija was attacked, resulting in the death of the father of the groom, Nikola Gardović, and the wounding of a Serbian Orthodox priest. The attack took place on the last day of a controversial referendum on Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence from Yugoslavia, in the early stages of the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Wars.
The Croat federal unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or Croat entity, also informally known as the third entity, is a proposed administrative unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina based on territorial federalism and ethnic self-determination. The proposal has been invoked by several political scientists, politicians and political parties, including the Croat National Assembly. So far it has not been discussed beyond the concept level. Since the country is divided into two entities, the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-majority Federation, Croats, as one of the three equal constitutive nations, have proposed creating a symmetrical Croat-majority territorial unit. Political advocates for such proposal argue it would ensure Croat equality and prevent electoral gerrymandering, simplify the political gridlock while dismantle overburdening administration. Opponents argue it would further divide the country on ethnic grounds thus breaching the constitutional principles, put non-Croats in a subordinate position, and lead to separatism.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the governmental department which oversees civil affairs of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees of Bosnia and Herzegovina is the governmental department which oversees the human rights of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and refugees.
General elections were held in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 2 October 2022. They decided the makeup of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Presidency as well as national, entity, and cantonal governments.
General elections were held in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 2 October 2022 as part of the Bosnian general elections. Voters elected the 98 members of the House of Representatives of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the assemblies of the cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
