Fear, Transition and Democracy in the Balkans
In: Southeastern EuropeSearch for other papers by Alpar Losoncz in
Current site
Google Scholar
The article puts emphasis on the fact that fear is to be articulated in the intersection between the universal structure of modernity and the particular historical narrations of the Balkans. The interpretation of history and the relationship with hope determine the meanings of fear. Fear is treated as the imagining of threats based on the re-memorization of the past and the experience of a fragile future. Hope is a positive anticipation or expectation concerning the future but exposed to the possibility of frustration. These moments are analyzed in the context of transition from the single-party based “socialism” to capitalism. The countries of the Balkans represented variations on the authoritarian welfare state project that entered crises at the end of 1960s. Ethnic conflicts in this part of Europe have been intensified under the increased economic pressures that had been latent for decades. Therefore, the fear of declassation that the middle class is experiencing has resulted in the fact that we cannot understand different national conflicts explaining the actual fears of middle class. Hence, it is necessary here to determine the structural basis of fear and hope. In order to understand the fears of the Balkans we need to reflect on the capitalism created in the meantime. It is noticed that the restorative orientation followed by the political elites during the transition causes the formation of fear axes regarding the understanding of national identity, as well as fear related to the preservation of national determination.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Ahmed S.2004. The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).
-
Aligica P. D., and Evans A. J.. 2009. The Neoliberal Revolution in Eastern Europe (Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, MA, USA: Edward Elgar).
-
Balibar É.1997. La crainte des masse (Paris: Galilée).
-
Beckert J.2003. “Economic sociology and embeddedness. How shall we conceptualize economic action?” Journal of Economic Issues 37: 769–87.
-
——. 2005. Trust and the performative construction of markets. MPIfG Discussion Paper 05/8. Cologne: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Society.
-
——. 2012. Capitalism as a System of Contingent Expectations: Toward a Sociological Microfoundation of Political Economy, MPIfG Discussion Paper 12/4.
-
Berezin M., 2005. “Emotions and the economy,” in Smelser N., & Swedberg R. (ed.), The handbook of economic sociology (2nd ed.) (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press): 109–30.
-
Biber F., 2002. “ Delayed Transition and the Multiple Legitimacy Crisis of Post-1992 Yugoslavia,” in Keridis D., , Elias-Bursac E., , and Yatromanolakis N. (ed.) New Approach to Balkan Studies: 129–49.
-
Bibó I.1986. Válogatott tanulmányok I-III. köt (Budapest: Magvető).
-
Bideleux R., , Jeffries I.2007. The Balkans. A Post-Communist History (Routledge: London).
-
Bieler A., 2006. “European Integration and Eastward Enlargement: A Historical Materialist Understanding of Neo-liberal Restructuring in Europe,” in A. Bieler, Bonefeld W., , Burnham P., , Morton A. D. (ed.) Global Restructuring, State, Capital and Labour Contesting Neo-Gramscian Perspectives, (London: Palgrave MacMillan): 71–91.
-
Bjelic D., 2002. “Introduction: Blowing Up the Bridge,” in Bjelic D. I., , Savic O. (ed.) Balkan as Metaphor: Between Globalization and Fragmentation (Massachussets: The MIT Press): 1–23.
-
Bloch E.1986. The Principle of Hope (Massachussets: MIT Press).
-
Bohle D., , Greskovits B.2009. “Varieties of Capitalism and Capitalism tout court” Arch.europ.sociol. 3: 355–86.
-
Böröcz J.2000. “Informality and Nonprofits in East Central European Capitalism” Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 2: 123–40.
-
Bracewell W., , Drace-Francis A.1999. “South-Eastern Europe: History, Concepts, Boundaries” Balkanologie, Revue d’études pluridisciplinaires, <http://balkanologie.revues.org/index741.html>. Accessed, 12/19/2011.
-
Bracewell W.2009. “Balkan Travel Writing: Points of departure,” in W. Bracewell, A.D. Frencis (ed.) Balkan Departures (Oxford, New York; Berghahn Books): 1–25.
-
Brunkhorst H.2005. Solidarity, (MIT Press: Cambridge).
-
Canetti E.1960. Masse und Macht (Düsseldorf: Fischer Tachenbuch Verlag).
-
DiMaggio P., 2002. “Endogenizing Animal Spirits: Toward a Sociology of Collective Response to Uncertainty and Risk,” in Guillén M. F., , England P. (ed.) The New Economic Sociology: Developments in an Emerging Field (New York: Russell Sage): 79–100.
-
Elster J.1983. Sour Grapes: Studies in the Subversion of Rationality (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press).
-
——. 1996. “Rationality and the Emotions,” The Economic Journal 438: 1386–97.
-
——. 2011. “The two great fears of 1789,” Social Science Information 50: 317–29.
-
Shane F., , Loewenstein G., 1999. “Hedonic Adaptation,” in Kahneman D., , Schwartz D. N. (ed.) Well-being: the Foundations of Hedonic Adaptation (New York: Russell Sage Foundation): 302–29.
-
Furedi F.2006. Culture of fear (sec. ed.) (London: Continuum).
-
Greif A.1994. “Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies,” Journal of Political Economy 5: 912–50.
-
Greskovits B.1998. The Political Economy of Protest and Patience (East European, and Latin American Transformations Compared) (Budapest: Central European Press).
-
Inglot T.2008. Welfare States in East Central Europe, 1919–2004 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
-
Jessop B.1990. State Theory (London: Polity Press).
-
Kaplan S.1982. “The famine-plot persuasion in eighteenth-century France,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 72: 1–79.
-
Kuus M.2004. “Europe’s eastern expansion and the reinscription of otherness in East-Central Europe,” Progress in Human Geography 4: 472–89.
-
Lefebvre G.1988. La grande peur, suivi de Les foules révolutionnaires (Paris: Armand Colin).
-
Losonc A., 2008. “Political Representation as an Expression of the Relationship between Majority and Minority,” in Vujadinovic D., , Goati V. (eds.), Between Authoritarianism and Democracy, Serbia at the Political Crossroads, (Belgrade: Cedet): 87–109.
-
Mann M.2005. The Dark Side of Democracy, Explaining Ethnic Cleansing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
-
Martin Thorton G.2002. The European Union: Teleology and Some Challenges of the Eastern Enlargement. CEPS Policy Brief No. aei.pitt.edu/1989/. Accessed, 1/30/2013.
-
Močnik R.2003. <www.eurozine.com/…/2003-03-20-mocnik-en.html.accessed>. Accessed 09/02/2013.
-
Mungiu-Pippidi A.2005. “Deconstructing Balkan Particularism: The Ambiguous Social Capital Of Southeastern Europe,” Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 1: 49–68.
-
Nielsen K., , Jessop B., and Hausner J., 1995. “ Institutional Change in Post-Socialism,” in Hausner J., , Jessop B., , and Nielsen K. (ed.), Strategic Choice and Path-Dependency in Post-Socialism: Institutional Dynamics in the Transformation Process (Aldershot: Edward Elgar): 3–44.
-
Ost D., 1995. “Labor, Class and Democracy: Shaping Political Antagonisms in Post-Communist Society,” in Crawford B. (ed.) Markets, States, and Democracy: The Political Economy of Post-Communist Transformation (Boulder, San Francisco, and London: Westview Press): 177–203.
-
——. 1992. “ Labour and Societal Transition,” Problems of Communism 5-6: 48–51.
-
Pain R.2009. “Globalized fear? Towards an emotional geopolitics,” Progress in Human Geography 4: 466–86.
-
Polanyi K., 1957. The Great Transformation. The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (Boston: Beacon).
-
Popović M.1996. Posle hladnog rata: Balkanska postmoderna 2, (Bar: Barski ljetopis).
-
Przeworski A.1991. Democracy and Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press).
-
Schöpflin G.1999. Defining South-Eastern Europe, <hgttp://balkanologie.revues.org/index743.html>. Accessed 27 January 2013.
-
Sewell W. Jr.2005. Logics of History, (The University of Chicago Press, Chicago).
-
Sharp H.2005. “ Why Spinoza Today? Or, A Strategy of Anti-Fear,” Rethinking Marxism 4: 591–608.
-
Slovic P., , Finucane M., , Peters E., & MacGregor D.2004. “Risk as analysis and risk as feelings: some thoughts about affect, reason, risk and rationality,” Risk Analysis 2: 311–22.
-
Sparke M.2007. “Geopolitical fears, geoeconomic hopes and the responsibilities of geography.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 97: 338–49.
-
Streeck W.2009. Re-Forming Capitalism. Institutional Change in the German, Political Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
-
Sunstein C.2004. Fear and Liberty, <http://www.newschool.edu/centers/socres/vol71/714sunstein.pdf>. Accessed, 1/31/2013.
-
Swain A., , Mykhnenko V., and French Sh., . 2010. “The Corruption Industry and Transition: Neoliberalizing Post-Soviet Space?” in Swain A., , Mykhnenko V., and French Sh. (ed.), The Collapse of an Economic Order? (London: Zed Books): 112–133.
-
Todorova M.1997. Imagining the Balkans (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
-
Vecernik J.1996. Markets and People. The Czech Reform Experience in a Comparative Perspective (Aldershot: Avebury).
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 375 | 55 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 77 | 0 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 38 | 0 | 0 |
Fear, Transition and Democracy in the Balkans
In: Southeastern EuropeSearch for other papers by Alpar Losoncz in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The article puts emphasis on the fact that fear is to be articulated in the intersection between the universal structure of modernity and the particular historical narrations of the Balkans. The interpretation of history and the relationship with hope determine the meanings of fear. Fear is treated as the imagining of threats based on the re-memorization of the past and the experience of a fragile future. Hope is a positive anticipation or expectation concerning the future but exposed to the possibility of frustration. These moments are analyzed in the context of transition from the single-party based “socialism” to capitalism. The countries of the Balkans represented variations on the authoritarian welfare state project that entered crises at the end of 1960s. Ethnic conflicts in this part of Europe have been intensified under the increased economic pressures that had been latent for decades. Therefore, the fear of declassation that the middle class is experiencing has resulted in the fact that we cannot understand different national conflicts explaining the actual fears of middle class. Hence, it is necessary here to determine the structural basis of fear and hope. In order to understand the fears of the Balkans we need to reflect on the capitalism created in the meantime. It is noticed that the restorative orientation followed by the political elites during the transition causes the formation of fear axes regarding the understanding of national identity, as well as fear related to the preservation of national determination.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 375 | 55 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 77 | 0 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 38 | 0 | 0 |
