The Heavy Burden of History: Political Uses of the Past in the Yugoslav Successor States
The Heavy Burden of History: Political Uses of the Past in the Yugoslav Successor States

Summary/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.

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