Critique of Instrumentalist and Primordialist Theories: The Case of Yugoslavia
Critique of Instrumentalist and Primordialist Theories: The Case of Yugoslavia

Summary/Abstract: Beyond the mainstream conflict in former Yugoslavia, an incomplete research ‎exists on the micro-military ethnic alliances and micro-conflicts on the local‎ and regional levels particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The article attempts ‎to fill this knowledge gap through the examination of the theoretical frameworks, ‎instrumentalism and primordialism as the two most frequently used ‎frameworks in explaining the Yugoslav disintegration. In terms of instrumentalism, ‎the article expands on the overreaching assumptions on the account of ‎elitist capacity to instrumentilize ethnic violence in multiethnic societies. Article ‎adds to the existing literature that instrumentalism can and often does ‎inadvertently neglect identifying instances where the elitist’s instrumentalisation ‎of the masses did not materialize. Conversely, primordialism an approach ‎that fell out of favor and an unfit framework in regards to Yugoslav dissolution,‎ was substantially and eagerly applied as an explanans, particularly in the first ‎stages of the war. In principle, the primordialism erroneously characterized the‎Yugoslav dissolution as the ancient ethnic grievances coming to the surface in ‎the absence of strong central government and the primordialist never bothered‎ to further that analysis. Hence, this article will go beyond the basic primordialist‎assumption, it confirms that primordialism, the genetically based‎ argument, cannot adequately tackle conflicts in multiethnic societies as seen ‎in Yugoslavia however, and omitted from the literature, the article posits that ‎the approach has an inexplicably staunch and protracting capacity to linger and ‎spread through the pores of society as a mechanism often utilized by nationalists ‎elites to manipulate and sustain their radical views. This capacity in principle‎ effectively protracts hostilities as attested in all former Yugoslav republics.‎

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