Religious Institutions as Agents of Continuing Ethnic Mobilisation in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina
: Understanding the role of religious communities in Croatia and Bosnia and Her-zegovina’s post-Communist societies is very important for grasping the nature and history of democratic development in these two countries. A close investigation reveals that the relationship between the political and religious elites is cruci-al, but also subject to change given the shifting nature of social developments. Three stages in this relationship can be observed. The first phase started with the collapse of Yugoslavia and Communism in 1991-1992 and lasted until the early 2000s. This was a formative stage for the new societies, and religion played a key role in the national homogenisation and construction of new identities. The second phase, which started in the early 2000s and lasted most of the decade, was a period of relative economic prosperity, with a weakening of the nationalist political elites’ sway, and consequently a weakening of the role of the religious organisations. The third phase, which started with the financial crisis of 2008 and is still ongoing, is marked by a renewed populist and rightist agenda in politics, which has also resulted in a strengthening of the public role of organised religion in both countries.