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Abstract:
Democratization is a standard strategy for building peace in ethnically divided post-civil war societies. In order to succeed, democratization requires existing state structures and the acceptance of the common state by all parties to the conflict. Therefore, following wars on secession, democratization has to master the double challenge of state-building and nation-building, the latter meaning a process, which brings about the acceptance of the common state. As both tasks have to be undertaken simultaneously, democratization seems to be impeded by a vicious circle: A lack of democratic state institutions hinders nation-building, and if the parties to the conflict do not accept the common state, the institutions cannot function. A case study of Bosnia and Herzegovina demonstrates that a certain progress of democratization can be achieved despite the asserted vicious circle. The efforts of democratization, however, failed to establish a fully-fledged democracy.
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