Identitarian Intellectuals and Ethno-nationalism

Abstract

Whereas in Chapter 7 the emphasis was on the responsibility of political elites and state organisation in the institutionalisation of rigid forms of cultural difference, this chapter will focus on the role of cultural elites, and in particular state-created intellectuals, in the process of intensifying ethno-nationalist mobilisation. Although, as I have argued, the fragmentation of the Yugoslav state had a great deal to do with the legacy of a peculiar institutional design and the way this was exploited by political entrepreneurs, this is only part of a complex story concerning the sudden demise of the state. To more fully understand the dramatic social and political shifts that shaped this process it is also essential to dissect the ideological make up of Yugoslavia’s intelligentsia. Here again, as in Chapter 7, my aim is not only to attempt to get to grips with the specificity of the Yugoslav situation but also to use this case study to further analytically dissect the implications of identitarianism in practice. Despite the peculiarities that deepened and widened the scale of this tragedy there is also a universalistic message here — a message which can tell us something significant about the position of organicist state intellectuals in initiating, spearheading and galvanising ethno-nationalist mobilisation. Moreover this can also tell us something about the nature of the modern nation-state and its role in fostering identitarian ideologies.