BOSNIA IS (NOT) LIKE YUGOSLAVIA: THE STRUCTURE OF GRIEVANCES AND RESPONSES TO SELF-DETERMINATION CLAIMS IN MULTINATIONAL STATES

This article offers several interlinked hypotheses aimed at greater understanding of sustainable internal self-determination (political autonomy) within multinational states. At its core is the argument that political grievances of the largest national collective are a critical element in understanding the possibility of accommodation of claims for internal self-determination. Where majority grievances are intense and directly linked with the claims to self-determination of smaller national communities, self-determination will be a constant source of destabilizing political tensions. The second part of the article posits that even in such circumstances, there are ideational and organizational pathways through which majority grievances can be tempered. I use the example of socialist Yugoslavia and post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina to illustrate this point and suggest future areas for research.