Between democracy and nationalism; the rise and fall of the Belgrade critical intelligentsia, 1980-1991

This thesis traces the evolution of the Serbian intellectual dissidence in the post-Tito period, until the disintegration of Yugoslavia. It first traces the emergence of a strong umbrella movement that contested the communist regime. Covering in detail the revision of history, the "Kosovo question", and the relationship between the Serbian and the Slovenian critical intelligentsias, it examines how nationalism became the dominant form of discourse in the cultural sphere, subsuming the initial democratic strivings of the dissidents. Finally, it analyses the relations between the intelligentsia and the Milosevic regime, the period of "national homogenisation" and the choice of the nation over democracy made by intellectuals. The former dissidents thus ended up legitimising the regime and hampering their own efforts to subsequently forge a strong political opposition, present a democratic alternative and defeat the ruling party at the polls; catpub99; geudbu/01.2000