This thesis is about the identity and the state, more specifically the identity in former Yugoslavia and the identity in Bosnia Herzegovina today. How can there suddenly be such a change in the identity of the people when the state capacity collapses? Are norms and language important in order to maintain the same identity? My analysis about the Yugoslavian identity, how it was constructed, and later on the identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, supports my hypothesis; that the state and the identity have a connection. The main purpose of my thesis is to see the difference between the Yugoslavian identity and the identity in Bosnia Herzegovina today, and to find out if the state capacity is important in the construction of identities.