Op-Ed: in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is participation a possible way out of the constitutional conundrum?

The problem is well known. It was already the Constitutional Court in its “constituent peoples” ruling in 2000 that made clear that a reform of the Dayton constitution is unavoidable in order to implement the principles that lay the foundations of the same constitution, namely the achievement of a society based on the equality of citizens. [...] If variably representative groups prepare a decision in a cooperative way, outside of political daily conflict, the proposals have a high degree of legitimacy and a high chance to be supported in the political decision-making, as they offer a solution and prevent dissent after the decision. Experiments of this kind are being extended from the local level, where they have understandably been started, to the constitutional domain. And this opens extremely interesting avenues also to the prospective reform of the constitution of BiH. There are already a number of possible sources of inspiration to design a process that could lead to proposals for reform and the procedure to support it. [...] If both top down and classical bottom up have not worked so far, it might be the time to consider participation as a way out of the constitutional conundrum for BiH.
Read the full article here: Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa