Ethnocracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina
According to the Dayton Agreement of 1995, the former Yugoslav state in the Western Balkans is an etnofederation. The country is composed of two federal entities and a self-governing administrative unit: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the (Bosnian) Republika Srpska, and the Brčko District respectively, which is jointly administered by the former two as a condominium. The country has three constituent nations: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. To ensure the functioning of the state, certain offices are restricted to members of the constituent nations, what the European Court of Human Rights considered a violation of the European Convention of Human Rights (Sejdić-Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina).
The state applies several key characteristics of the consociational democracies, intending to involve all three constituent nations into decision-making at all possible levels. The state’s supreme governing body is a three-member presidency, with one member elected by each constituent community whom could exercise the right of veto. The governments at state level, in the federal units and cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina must operate as a grand coalition on the basis of binding quotas.