NATIONALISM/POPULISM VERSUS CIVIC OPTION - SERBIA
NATIONALISM/POPULISM VERSUS CIVIC OPTION - SERBIA

Author(s): Božidar Jakšić
Subject(s): Politics, Recent History (1900 till today), Nationalism Studies, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Inter-Ethnic Relations, Wars in Jugoslavia
Published by: CEDET Centar za demokratsku tranziciju
Keywords: nationalism; populism; civic tradition; civic option
Summary/Abstract: In the final two centuries of the past millennium, Serbian nationalism expressed its power both as an ideology and as a movement, but was much less articulated as a theoretically planned orientation. In fact it was articulated in the two Serbian uprisings against the Ottoman rule. From the early 19th century on, it relied on two myths that were strongly present among the Serbian people — the St. Sava myth and the Kosovo myth. To this mythical base more than seventy years of struggle for the creation of an independent Serbian state throughout the 19th century was added and then, at the beginning of the 20th century, Serbian nationalism showed its imperial face in the Balkan Wars as well as its strong patriotism in World War I. Finally, at the end of the Great War, it built its statehood in the foundation for the common state of the South Slavs (without the Bulgarians) — i.e. the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians. During those struggles that lasted more than a century, Serbian nationalism displayed an outstanding power of absorption that made it different from the majority of other Balkan nationalisms that pursued an exclusivist orientation. To put it in terms of modern political theory, this very power made Serbian nationalism “less transparent, and seemingly less aggressive, more tolerant in accepting others but definitely not weaker. On the contrary! Serbian nationalism lost this power at the end of the 20th century - it too became exclusivist and populistic and thus strongly contributed to the disintegration of the Yugoslav state. Serbian nationalism and populism first pushed the Serbian people and other citizens of Serbia into a conflict with their neighbors and with the rest of the world and then - in those conflicts - destroyed the motivational and material conditions for an economic, political, cultural and moral reconstruction of the society. Due to a strong motivation of the citizens, the change of the political regime in Serbia took place, at the end of year 2000. Has it weakened Serbian nationalism and populism? It is difficult to give an unambiguous, let alone positive answer to this question.

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