engleski

Legacies of populism: How focus groups discuss Milosevic's hybrid of class and nation

Most scholarship on Serbia's “anti-bureaucratic revolution” of the late 1980s has emphasized elite actors, while ignoring the motivations of ordinary participants. How do ordinary people describe their involvement? Moreover, given the anti-bureaucratic revolution's dark side – such as exclusionary nationalism and political authoritarianism – it is important to investigate if participants are willing to critically engage their personal political histories. What do they now say about their role in this episode? In order to provide answers to this question, six focus groups with a total of 34 participants were organized in the town of Novi Sad, the location of one of the best known rallies of the anti- bureaucratic revolution, the so-called “yogurt revolution.” Most people see their involvement in a rather negative way and regret taking part. However, two blind-spots also appear that lessen one's personal responsibility: conspiracy theories and notions of urban superiority. The former shifts blame onto secret forces and the latter onto non-urban outsiders. Overall, the long-run legacies of the anti-bureaucratic revolution are negative: they are associated with cynicism and apathy.

Serbia ; Yugoslavia ; Milošević : antibureaucratic revolution

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