'Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb'
Abstract
Political interpretations of the past serve different purposes: they
are the source of collective identities that distinguish “us” and
“them”, they mobilize support for political leaders as well as negative
emotions against political adversaries. In the post-Yugoslav states
political uses of history by political elites played an important role in
their nationalist policies which ultimately produced violent conflicts
and war. This outcome has been rather exceptional in comparison to
the dynamics of nationalism in other two dissolving post-communist
federations. The author examines several explanations of this exceptionalism
and argues that the strength of nationalism and intensity of
nationalist conflicts among the ex-Yugoslav nations can be explained
by the unfavourable historical conditions of nation- and state-building
and by different elite strategies. A comparison of nationalist discourses
and political strategies of Serb, Croatian and Slovene
political elites reveals significant differences which led to different
outcomes
