TAMING, RADICALIZATION OR COMPLETE CHANGE: NOTES ON NATIONALISM IN SERBIA
TAMING, RADICALIZATION OR COMPLETE CHANGE: NOTES ON NATIONALISM IN SERBIA

Author(s): Alpar Lošonc
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Politics and religion, Nationalism Studies, Inter-Ethnic Relations
Published by: CEDET Centar za demokratsku tranziciju
Keywords: nation building; liberal nationalism; conflicting discourses; policy towards minorities; fragility of the state apparatus
Summary/Abstract: Debates about the scope of nationalism are intensifying in Serbia with the forthcoming restructuring of the political space, primarily in view or of the forthcoming adoption of the Constitution. The key question for the policy to­ wards nationalism in Serbia is the attitude towards the past, towards the ethics of responsibility vis-a-vis the war crimes, and the attitude towards the minorities. Attention must also be paid to the discursive conflicts that played an important role in the previous period as well. Liberal nationalism has important strongholds, but it must be taken into account that in Serbia the orientation under the same name acquires different aspects than in the rest of the world, and is more oriented towards a restriction of rights. Importance must also be given to the positions taken by a certain part of the church elites that find it appropriate to articulate the nation building on references to anti-Western thought. The paper offers a diagnosis of the minority policy, acknowledges steps that can be deemed positive but also stresses the fragility of the achievements and the weakness of the overall institutional apparatus of the state that might react to everyday situations. In this regard, guidelines are stressed for the institutional ensemble of the state facing the task to carry out reforms within the framework of a tardy “transition“.

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