One of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), formed in 1995 as a result of the Dayton Accords, which put an end to the Bosnian war. The capital is the city of Banja Luka. The entity occupies about 48% of the territory of BiH, where more than 35% of the country's population lives. The titular ethnic group - the Serbs - dominates the ethnoreligious structure, accounting for about 90% of the population of the entity; entity's name refers to the ethnonym of the titular ethnic group. The kin-state is Serbia.
Politico-institutional design of Bosnia and Herzegovina features decentralization and ethnic segmentation. The party system of BiH is comprised of a collection of ethnic parties. According to the Dayton Agreement, part of which is the constitution of BiH, the Republic of Srpska, along with another entity (FBiH), has exclusive powers in the field of defence and the organization of the armed forces at the level of individual cantons. Under the RS’s government purview are issues of the development and implementation of economic, fiscal and monetary, as well as energy policy, education, health, culture, etc.
The Republic of Srpska public authorities are formed on the principle of proportional representation of three ethnic groups - Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs. Despite the domination of Serbs in the entity, governmental power-sharing is enforced: out 16 Cabinet ministers, five must be Bosniaks, and three - Croats. However, due to the weakness of Bosniac and Croat parties the Republic, their representatives usually run on the Serbian party lists.
Unlike the FBiH, the Republika Srpska has a unitary structure. It consists of 7 regions, which are divided further into 63 municipalities. In the Republika Srpska, the conflict associated with the idea of annexation to Serbia recurs periodically.
