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In October 2010 the Bosnian peoples were asked to vote once again for a new state parliament, entity and cantonal parliaments as well as for the members for the Bosnian Presidency and the President of the Republika Srpska. While these elections resulted in a number of surprise gains by moderate candidates and parties, it is unlikely that the newly elected representatives will be able to overcome the political deadlock that has paralysed Bosnia over the last years. Too deep are the political cleavages between the parties and (more important) between the different ethnic groups and too little has been done by international actors including the European Union to push for reform and a consolidation of the state. While there is some hope that the radical rhetoric will calm down in the future, real progress and reform will need an active engagement of the EU, the USA and of Bosnia's neighbours as well as its three constituent peoples (Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats). The key for future progress is an agreement on the nature and structure of the common state of Bosnia and Herzegovina among its constituent peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Generally, federalism in Bosnia and Herzegovina is regarded as a mechanism of inter-ethnic power-sharing. It ensures autonomy for the Bosnian Serbs in the Republika Srpska and territorial autonomy for the Bosnian Croats in three of the ten cantons of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Scholars of Bosnia have often blamed the flawed Dayton Constitution for the problems of political deadlock and structural deficits of Bosnia since 1995. While, however, the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (GFAP) created a highly decentralized federal state, it did not create a pure ethnic federation, in which all political conflict is reduced to inter-ethnic bargaining. Instead, the GFAP created a mixture of ethnic and territorial federalism. However, it is still the practice of the Bosnian parties that reduces "Dayton-Bosnia" to inter-ethnic power-sharing and all political conflict to a conflict between the different Bosnian peoples, It is also in this context that the international peace and state builders failed in Bosnia, since they did not manage to encourage the development of a party system that offered alternatives to ethnically homogenous parties. This needs to be a key lesson learnt also for international efforts of state-building in Kosovo and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]