Radovan Karadžić won an impressive number of votes and received widespread acclaim in the November 1990 election, but he had no practical experience in wielding the power he had suddenly acquired. At first he followed the lead of Slobodan Milošević, the cunning and resourceful president of the Republic of Serbia, who sought variously to influence, goad, and restrain him. Karadžić gained competence and confidence with each decision he made and each crisis he weathered. Although he remained generally subservient to Serb leaders in Belgrade, Karadžić developed his own perspective and began to pursue his own policies, driven by his own convictions and his often volatile reaction to initiatives of other political actors in Bosnia. He soon turned against the Bosniak and Croat nationalist leaders and in a matter of months he was treating them as enemies. In fits and starts during 1991, Karadžić came into his own as the chief political leader of the Bosnian Serbs.

The Nationalization of Politics in Yugoslavia’s Republics

Nationalism surged everywhere in Yugoslavia in the aftermath of the 1990 elections. Voters had elected nationalists in most places, and nationalist impulses were manifest in the policies of newly-elected office-holders. Elections in Serbia and Montenegro confirmed Milošević and his follower President Momir Bulatović to the offices they had achieved by intra-party machinations a few years before. In Croatia and Slovenia, democratically selected leaders organized plebiscites on independence and crafted declarations of sovereignty. Their parliaments declared independence simultaneously on June 25, 1991.