Transformation in the political economy of Bosnia since Dayton

The transformation dynamics of Bosnia and Herzegovina adversely affects economically vulnerable sectors of society in a context of fragile economic growth and a contested balance of power between international direction and local ownership. International agencies and financial institutions have imposed a model of economic transformation, ultimately derived from the neoliberal ideology of aggressive capitalism and the 1989 Washington consensus on developmentalism. Dayton's complex constitutional arrangements fragmented the market and its economic governance. The population has clung to clientism, shadow economic activities and resistance to centrally-audited exchange. This essay references Bauman's concept of 'liquid modernity' to contend that what is sometimes portrayed as a clash between neoliberal modernity and a pre-modern 'Balkan way' is questionable in its dyadic assumptions and its underestimation of linkages between the spheres of neoliberalism and nationalist-clientism.