“Civil Society” between Protest and Provision : Victims’ Organizations, Party Competition and Neocorporatism in Bosnia and Herzegovina

In order to elucidate the activities of one of the most vocal Bosnian war victims’ organizations, this article eschews the dominant debate over the contribution of “civil society” to democratization, and instead examines the complex links between the state, political parties, and collective organizations. It first points to the role that the protests of the Serb Union for Camp Detainees play in intra-Serb party politics, and it then signals the place of this organization in the provision of public resources. This article thus unravels the partisan and neocorporatist logics of Bosnian war victims’ mobilizations, the crucial part they play in the consolidation of ethnocracy in postsocialist Bosnia, and the contribution of international peacebuilding intervention to such a form of government.