Naslov
Does each regime get the critical juncture it deserves? Yugoslav workers and nationalists in 1989

Autori
Grdešić, Marko

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
1989: Then and now

Mjesto i datum
Miami (OH), Sjedinjene Američke Države, 10.2010

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
Revolution ; 1989 ; Yugoslavia ; labor ; nationalism

Sažetak
A popular saying in the countries of the former Yugoslavia is that people get the leaders they deserve. This paper suggests a re­statement of this rather fatalistic folk wisdom: each regime gets the critical juncture it deserves. My goal is to assess if the social science version is more plausible. The paper compares Yugoslavia's two critical junctures: 1948, when the country broke with Stalin and 1988, when a wave of worker and nationalist protest peaked. A key dilemma can be located in the critical junctures that semi­ authoritarian regimes face. It does not seem possible to blend elite learning and elite ideological adjustment (as in 1948) with popular participation and mobilization from below (as in 1988). What promotes one closes off the other. Regimes like socialist Yugoslavia, which see themselves as superior to their neighbors, may feel they are above this dilemma. This is precisely what makes it more likely that they will fall prey to it. This also means that not every regime gets the critical juncture it “deserves.” More advanced, open and liberalized regimes may receive “harder” critical junctures, those that are more difficult to control and that lead to a spiral of increasing uncertainty.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Politologija, Sociologija

POVEZANOST RADA