Miodrag A. Jovanović
Law Faculty, University of Belgrade
Serbia: From Ethnic Nationhood to
Multicultural Citizenship
• Introductory note
• Nation-building vs. State-building
• Yugoslavism – Rival Identity that Failed
• Ethnic/Civic Nation Dichotomy Reconsidered
• Towards New Constitutional Definition of
Serbia
• Concluding remarks
Ethnic vs. civic nationalism
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ethnic nationalism - “the sense of national identity and loyalty
shared by a group of people united among themselves and
distinguished from others by one or more of the following
factors: language, religion, culture; and, most important, a
belief in the common genetic or biological descent of the group.”
civic nationalism - “the collective identity of a group of people
born or living in a specified territory with a shared history, and
owing allegiance to a sovereign government whose powers are
defined and delimited by laws enacted and enforced through
institutions such as parliament or Congress that evoke common
loyalty to powerful symbols and myth of nationality.” (James Mc
Pherson)
Serbian nationhood concept
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belief in common ethnic descent
distinctive language and Cyrillic
alphabet
shared history
Orthodox Christianity
Road to independence
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the phase of rebellion leaders (вождови) and fight
for statehood (1804-1833)
the phase of vassal state (1833-1878)
the phase of independent Serbia (1878-1918)
Road to ethno-cultural heterogeneity
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1910. census (homogenous society) – 2.881.220 inhabitants –
98,6% (Orthodox Christians), 0,5% (Muslims), 0,28%
(Catholics), and less than 1% (other denominations Protestants, Moses Church etc.)
after the 1912/13 territorial expansions, Serbia acquired
1.474.560. new citizens – 681.104. from Kosovo and Metohija
and Sanjak, as well as 793.456. from Macedonia
In the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Serbia entered
the total territory of 87.800 km², while Vojvodina (Banat, Bačka,
Baranja and Srem) entered some 19.700 km² and
approximately 1.300.000. inhabitants
Obstacles to Yugoslav identity
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the absence of unified language standards (prevalent dialect in
Serbian literature ekavski, and in Croatian ijekavski standard)
the direction of a new culture and identity formation (Serbian
intellectuals - distinct national characteristics should be fused
into one new identity, grounded in the historical struggle for
liberation of all South Slavic peoples; Croatian and Slovenian
intellectuals - the unity should be based on a cultural diversity)
there was no such thing as the common Yugoslav history
Ethnic/civic nation dichotomy reconsidered
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the myth of civic nation: “you are the political principles you
share with other like-minded individuals”
the myth of ethnic nation: “we can each trace our cultural
identities back to some discrete ethnic community; these
communities maintain their original character through time”
both concepts, under specific circumstances, are apt to produce
intolerance and exclusiveness
during their formation, all nations exhibit ethnic and territorial
components in varying proportions at particular moments of
their history
dichotomy to be used as the accessory methodological
apparatus for the description of historical development and
prevalent existing elements of different nations
Constitutional definition of Serbia
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Republic of Serbia is a “democratic state of all citizens living in
it, which is based on the human` and citizens` liberties and
rights, the rule of law and the social justice.” (1990 Constitution)
avoiding the ethno-exclusionary constitutional definition of
statehood
if one constitutional order is to provide special set of individual
and collective rights for its minority nations, then the conceptual
consistency implies the constitutional definition of statehood
that differentiates between majority and minority nations
(Serbia ia a “state of the Serbian nation and all national
minorities living in it...”)