ABSTRACT
Local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina form the basis of a highly decentralized political system. Since the first democratic local elections were held in 1997, international actors and domestic authorities have passed numerous reforms to strengthen local self-governance. Although Bosnian citizens express greater trust and satisfaction with their local governments than with higher levels of government, municipalities lack fiscal and political autonomy. Moreover, political power in Bosnia and Herzegovina is concentrated at the regional level, and ethnicity is linked to territorial units all the way from the regions down to municipalities. The Bosnian political system thus facilitates ethnic parties that rely on patronage, rather than programmatic policies, to maintain power within ethnic enclaves. Parties that dominate at the regional level therefore lack incentives to cede power to the local level.
