Yugoslavia: A State That Withered Away

by Dejan Jovic

Overview

The disintegration of Yugoslavia was the result of many factors, not of a single one, but the primary one, the author argues, was commitment of the Yugoslav political elite to the Marxist ideology of withering away of the state. Ideology had a central place in Yugoslav politics. The trend of decentralization of Yugoslavia was not primarily motivated by reasons of ethnic politics, but by Marxist beliefs that the state should be decentralized and weakened until it was finally replaced by a self-managing society, especially the case during the extended period of the last 15 years before the actual breakdown of the Yugoslav socialist federation. Yugoslavia: A State that Withered Away examines the emergence, implementation, crisis, and the breakdown of the fourth (Kardelj's) constitutive concept of Yugoslavia (1974-1990), and relations between anti-statist ideology of self-management and the actual collapse of state institutions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781557534958
Publisher:	Purdue University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2008
Series:	Central European Studies
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Dejan Jović is a lecturer in politics and director of the Centre for European Neighbourhood Studies at the University of Stirling, Scotland. He is also a book review editor for the Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1
Chapter One: Analytical Approaches to Studying the Disintegration of Yugoslavia
Chapter Two: The Kardelj Concept: Constructing the Fourth Yugoslavia (1974-1990)
Chapter Three: The Constitutional Debate 1967-1974: Why did Serbia accept the Kardelj concept and the 1974 Constitution?
Chapter Four: The Economic Crisis: The (Lack of) Response of the Yugoslav Political Elite to Economic Crisis in the Early 1980s
Chapter Five: The Political System Reexamined: The Serbian Question and the Rise of the Defenders and Reformers of the Constitution (1974-1984)
Chapter Six: The Emergence of Alternative Concepts and the Reaction of the Political Elite in Serbia (1984-1988)
Chapter Seven: Slovenia and Serbia: the Final Years of Yugoslavia (1988-1990)
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Yugoslavia: A State that Withered Away by Dejan Jovic´. West Lafayette IN: Purdue University Press, 2009. 419pp., £49.95, ISBN 978 1 55753 495 8

Dejan Jovic´ is Director of the Centre for European Neighbourhood Studies at the University of Stirling, Scotland and currently an adviser to the president of the Republic of Croatia, and consequently his book stands out as an indispensable work on the collapse of socialist Yugoslavia. The volume primarily focuses on analysing the ideological and constitutive aspects of the Yugoslav state, and it argues that ideological crisis was the key cause for the Yugoslav dissolution. The author proffers an innovative and well-argued account of the Marxist notion of the ‘withering away of the state’ by analysing the emergence, implementation, crisis and collapse of this ideological notion in socialist Yugoslavia. Interestingly, he approaches the topic first by presenting and criticising existing explanations for the break-up ofYugoslavia before finding them inadequate and continuing by arguing and substantiating his own views on ideological crisis and collapse. Thus Jovic´ successfully presents a critique of other approaches to theYugoslav dissolution and also examines theYugoslav case in historical perspective from three particular standpoints: adoption of the last constitutional compromise of 1974, the implementation crisis of the respective constitutive model and, finally, the roots of the 1980s ideological disintegration that instituted the Yugoslav downfall. This contribution on Yugoslavia is certainly a success because the author has managed to offer a markedly different view of the Yugoslav crisis and downfall, thus raising an important critique and re-evaluating already accepted and established accounts on Yugoslavia. Most notably, Jovic´ rejects the very popular, and certainly widely perceived, factor of ancient ethnic hatreds, among other things, as having led to the break-up. Yugoslavia: A State that Withered Away is an innovative piece, especially if other volumes covering the same topic are taken into consideration.
The author’s skilfully conducted analysis supported by a multitude of sources – official documents as well as his personal archives from the time when he was a journalist – offers a challenging and well-substantiated approach to Yugoslavia by advancing innovative thinking on the topic. The book is well written and easy to follow, and consequently will be of interest to an audience much wider than mere academic circles.

Vladimir D¯ orËevic´
(Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic)

The BOOK REVIEWS 293
© 2012 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2012 Political Studies Association Political Studies Review: 2012, 10(2)

Political Studies Review - Vladimir Dordevic

Yugoslavia: A State that Withered Away by Dejan Jovic´. West Lafayette IN: Purdue University Press, 2009. 419pp., £49.95, ISBN 978 1 55753 495 8

Dejan Jovic´ is Director of the Centre for European Neighbourhood Studies at the University of Stirling, Scotland and currently an adviser to the president of the Republic of Croatia, and consequently his book stands out as an indispensable work on the collapse of socialist Yugoslavia. The volume primarily focuses on analysing the ideological and constitutive aspects of the Yugoslav state, and it argues that ideological crisis was the key cause for the Yugoslav dissolution. The author proffers an innovative and well-argued account of the Marxist notion of the ‘withering away of the state’ by analysing the emergence, implementation, crisis and collapse of this ideological notion in socialist Yugoslavia. Interestingly, he approaches the topic first by presenting and criticising existing explanations for the break-up ofYugoslavia before finding them inadequate and continuing by arguing and substantiating his own views on ideological crisis and collapse. Thus Jovic´ successfully presents a critique of other approaches to theYugoslav dissolution and also examines theYugoslav case in historical perspective from three particular standpoints: adoption of the last constitutional compromise of 1974, the implementation crisis of the respective constitutive model and, finally, the roots of the 1980s ideological disintegration that instituted the Yugoslav downfall. This contribution on Yugoslavia is certainly a success because the author has managed to offer a markedly different view of the Yugoslav crisis and downfall, thus raising an important critique and re-evaluating already accepted and established accounts on Yugoslavia. Most notably, Jovic´ rejects the very popular, and certainly widely perceived, factor of ancient ethnic hatreds, among other things, as having led to the break-up. Yugoslavia: A State that Withered Away is an innovative piece, especially if other volumes covering the same topic are taken into consideration.
The author’s skilfully conducted analysis supported by a multitude of sources – official documents as well as his personal archives from the time when he was a journalist – offers a challenging and well-substantiated approach to Yugoslavia by advancing innovative thinking on the topic. The book is well written and easy to follow, and consequently will be of interest to an audience much wider than mere academic circles.

Vladimir D¯ orËevic´
(Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic)

The BOOK REVIEWS 293
© 2012 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2012 Political Studies Association Political Studies Review: 2012, 10(2)

— Vladimir Dordevic

Political Studies Review