Europeanization in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

Despite the European Union’s prior success promoting marketization and democracy in post-communist countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina may prove a unique challenge due to the incentives embedded in its governance structure. This article examines how the EU shifted strategy in response to these challenges through the example of BiH’s dairy industry. By de-emphasizing explicit leverage and instead promoting increased institutional capacity in discrete sectors, the EU sought to inculcate norms of professionalism and create more coherent top-to-bottom state service provision, which over time could help reduce resistance to the more fundamental constitutional changes that likely will be necessary for EU membership.