Abstract: The submitted paper analyses the main aspects of the political development of Bosnia and Herzegovina after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995. The main goal of the post-conflict reconstruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina was to achieve future political stability within political system. Consociational mechanisms and power-sharing mechanisms were to be introduced avoiding exclusion of the political representatives of one of the constitutional nations from the decision-making process and enforcing stronger cooperation among the political elites. The political system proceeded from Annex IV of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which was approved by the main political bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina and also by neighbouring Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Both the political elites of Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had their own political goals, which also resulted in the adoption of an extremely complicated political system and the inevitability of further international assistance in order to retain political stability. The main goal of the article is to demonstrate the most important problems emerging from the political system and analyse the importance the role of the Office of High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina played in achieving political stability.

Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Conflict Resolution, Political System, Political Parties, Consociational Democracy