Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- 1 Yugoslav socialism: a critical introduction
- 2 The official ideology of self-management
- 3 Perceptions of society and politics
- 4 Political generations and political attitudes
- 5 The structure of political participation
- 6 Patterns of public interaction
- 7 Cultural parameters of Yugoslav society
- 8 Political and socialist development
- Appendix. Methodology and field work
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Perceptions of society and politics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 March 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- Preface
- 1 Yugoslav socialism: a critical introduction
- 2 The official ideology of self-management
- 3 Perceptions of society and politics
- 4 Political generations and political attitudes
- 5 The structure of political participation
- 6 Patterns of public interaction
- 7 Cultural parameters of Yugoslav society
- 8 Political and socialist development
- Appendix. Methodology and field work
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
But for too long we have had an atmosphere of easy ‘success’, a deluge of paraders, a certain equality crashing through the spirit of expert mediocrity. Maestros are sprouting up all over with the help of the cane and the cushion: one time they crop up as ‘businessmen’, another time as ‘revolutionaries’, sometimes they are ‘writers’ or ‘idea throwers’ … There are more vociferous leaders than methodical political work, more writers than real books, more so-called doctors than discoveries, more ‘successful’ businessmen than factories whose accounts are in the black. Too often we greet serious orientations and methodical efforts with a snide smile, as something old fashioned; they are easily belittled, meeting with our skepticism or indifference.
Života Djordjević, ‘Zrelo i zeleno grožje’The official ideology does not prepare us for a depiction of Yugoslav society as one of ‘easy “success”, … paraders … equality … in mediocrity’. Still, the official ideology bears some resemblance to the social reality that ordinary citizens know, if only because it provides a scenario, a codification of norms, of which all citizens are conscious. This scenario is the substance of social learning outside the home. As such, it exists in a dialectical relationship with the social reality that citizens know from personal experience. Thus its incongruence with this social reality is axiomatic. Realizing this, we can compare the nature of social change as revealed both in individual lives and in the official ideology.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Beyond Marx and TitoTheory and Practice in Yugoslav Socialism, pp. 76 - 115Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1975