Dual Substate Citizenship as Institutional Innovation: The Case of Bosnia's Brčko District

Abstract

This article analyzes the politics and constitutional position of the Brčko District of BiH, drawing on this case to inform several important debates in the field with regards to questions of federalism, citizenship, and electoral politics. The article shows that the condominium logic of territorial arrangement has profound implications for substate citizenship in Brčko. It argues that apart from territorial options and consociational institutional mechanisms substate citizenship is an important element of conflict management. Though often neglected in the literature, dual substate citizenship could be considered an instrument of conflict management and, as this article argues, as a model of institutional innovation in divided societies.