engleski

The Search for Meaning and Identity: Nation- and State- Building in the Western Balkans

After the collapse of one-party communist rule and the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the region of Western Balkans has experienced an intensive period of collective soul- searching, with institutional and symbolic innovation and reinterpretation taking place. The new political and societal elites reinterpreted socialist institutions, the existing constitutional order, and identity frameworks to fit the new, nationalist narrative. State-building was in many cases accompanied by armed conflict, ranging from small- scale skirmishes to open war, as secessionist movements in parts of the newly established states refused to accept the results of independence referenda. Nation-building encompassed changes in official language policy, definitions of the titular nation and ethnic minorities, citizenship regimes, as well as symbolic shifts regarding the official flag, national anthem, currency, and even the very name of a given country. Religious institutions became vehicles of national consolidation, as well as contested grounds for opposing factions in the struggle for identity and meaning. Holding of referenda and census taking became tools of choice for the establishment and consolidation of nation and state. Competing statehood conceptions and narratives about nationhood created deep societal fault lines, which undermined or slowed down democratic consolidation. In some cases, political elites traded rigid nationalist narratives for free passage towards NATO and EU membership, proving responsive to EU conditionality. They accepted more inclusive notions of statehood and nationhood and accommodated concerns of minorities and neighboring states as a token of good will and proof of Europeanization.

nation-building ; state-building ; Yugoslavia ; post-conflict society ; peace-building

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