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
7 - Cultural parameters of Yugoslav society
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
If we're asked for justifications, we've got them: We have little knowledge, an Oriental mentality; We're still a culturally underdeveloped society; It's difficult for us to drag ourselves out of the bureaucratic mentality of togetherness; We're not rich enough to give a chance to those who are looking for one; We change everything too fast to retain the necessity of methodical work and great passion.
Života Djordjević ‘Zrelo i zeleno groždje’, NIN, 15, August 1971,From a survey of current behavior patterns, it seems as though the historically-determined situations into which the Yugoslav peoples have been thrust — especially peasant society and colonial domination — continue to structure their perceptions and their norms. Indeed, the self-concepts and explanations to which all the Yugoslav national minorities subscribe indicate their origins in the presocialist past. By continually citing their ‘cultural underdevelopment’, ‘Oriental mentality’, and ‘bureaucratic mentality’, Yugoslavs suggest that the social reality in which they live owes more to a pervasive, traditional culture than to an intensive, official ideology. Nevertheless, it is not only the weight of the past which makes the learning of new behavior problematic. Several other factors complicate the current situation: the paradox of trying to institutionalize a revolutionary peasant tradition, the task of inculcating norms which logically contradict those of the traditional base, and the inherent conflict between certain norms of two basic areas of the new culture — industrialism and socialism.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Beyond Marx and TitoTheory and Practice in Yugoslav Socialism, pp. 216 - 245Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1975