Preliminary communication
Blind Alleys in Variable Type Explanations of the Downfall of the Former Yugoslavia
Sergej Flere
; University of Maribor, Slovenia
Abstract
In this paper certain attractive explanations, present in sociological and other scholarship, on the dismemberment of Yugoslavia are considered, by reviewing them in light of certain thus far unpublished survey and census data on the former Yugoslavia, immediately preceding the dismemberment. Particularly one influential, but biased explanation of the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia is considered. Books by the sociologist Stjepan Meštrović merit particular attention in the depiction of bias towards the Yugoslav break-up.
It is refuted that there was an in-depth incompatibility based on authoritarianism of any nationality, on emotional instability' of any nationality, of ethnic stratification, of ethnic distance among the basic groups, which may explain the break-up. Instead, it is proposed that the break-up be explained by a maturation of nationalities, where the former Yugoslavia served as a nation-building institution, but for numerous nationalities.
Keywords
Yugoslavia; dissolution; authoritharianism; social distance; ethnic distance; ethnic stratification; cultural incompatibility; abuse of sociology
Hrčak ID:
154013
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2002.
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