Reclaiming the Political in Bosnia: A Critique of the Legal-Rational Nightmare of Contemporary Bosnian Statehood

Abstract

Through the lens of Sheldon Wolin's conception of "the political," this essay argues that the post-war Bosnian state, constructed through a fusion of nationalist ethnic cleansing, genocide, kleptocracy, and Western "nation-building," is an ideal representation of the depoliticization process inherent to every state-building project. The experience of state-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina illustrates more broadly the inherently violent and coercive nature of the state form. In place of this tendency, Andrej Grubacic's "radical balkanology" is suggested as representing the potential for a "no state solution" or what is termed a "cultural anarchic" turn for Bosnia and the greater Balkans. (C) 2013 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.