2014 saw the birth of a citizens’ protest and assembly movement in response to political corruption and poor social and economic conditions in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the ethnically segmented post-war polity, the non-ethnic nature of this civil action and its cross-ethnic base have been notable. Furthermore, in the context of the federal consociational power-sharing system instated by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, the development has raised the question of the movement’s potential to spur civic-oriented political change from the bottom up. This paper investigates this potential. Drawing upon qualitative research conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2014, it explores the interaction between the social movement and these institutional structures and the opportunities and constraints it has encountered within this political environment.
