TOPIC OF THE ISSUE: MULTICULTURALISM
Alpar Losonc, Cultural Plurality: The Apotheosis Of Difference
Or The Practice Of Acceptance
Summary
Multiculturalism is to be considered as the manifestation of the
immanent tendencies of modernity. The author critically treats the
approaches that interprete the subject as the turning to the differences.
Following the analysis of Tocqueville, multiculturalism is to be
understood in the context of the tensions between sameness and differentiality.
According to the author, multiculturalism can be depicted in the
light of the liberalism’s answer to the challenge of the new stage
of democratisation. The discourse of the multiculturalism points
out the punctum caecum of the national state, actually, the structural
non-indifference of the national state to the dominant cultural
identity. Due to the liberal interpretation of multiculturalism
collective type of rights are to be balanced carefully with the
individual rights. This achievement implicates the connection between
cultural narration and the abstract concept of right. This connection
presupposes hermeneutical attainments concerning the opportunity
of applying of rights. At the end, taking into account the situation
in Serbia, the author makes a difference between the acceptance
and recognition.
Key words: Multiculturality, Difference, Liberalism, Tocquille,
Recognition, Acceptance.
Slobodan Divjak, Liberalism – Communitarianism –Multiculturalism
Summary
In this text, the author strives to demonstrate
that the modern multicultural movement is an attempt at critique
of liberalism and, hence, at critique of formal-institutional order
of the modern world and its social implications. On the one hand,
the aim of this critique may be a moderate revision of liberalist
teaching which, with regard to its "revisionist" character,
strives not to challenge the basic postulates of the liberal teaching.
The proponents of so-called moderate multiculturalism present the
results of their critical analyses as contributions to supplementation,
innovation or broadening of liberalism. Some of them, to safeguard
themselves as convincingly as possible from any potential objections
of antiliberalism, strive to find foothold for their conceptions
in classical liberal theories and resort to re-thinking of liberal
tradition and its reinterpretation to this end. On the other hand,
the purpose of the mentioned critique, in accordance with the so-called
radical multiculturalism, may also be a more radical revision of
liberal teaching, or even radical abandonment of liberal teaching
through rejection of its basic principles. Representatives of both
tendencies, however, find the source for their critique in the empirical
evidence, which challenges liberal posits to various extents.
In harmony with his considerations, the author also suggests several
basic constitutional requirements for post-Milo{evi}
Serbia as a balanced combination of civil and multicultural models.
Key words: Multiculturalism, liberalism, communitarianism
Dusan Pavlovic, The Communitarian Critique Of The Rawlsian Liberalism
Summary
The most crucial communitarian objection to the Rawlsian liberalism
is that the ground-floor level of Rawls’s theory favors individuated
concep tions of the good. This objection was most forecfully put
forward by Michael Sandel. The article takes it up and proves it
wrong. The second part of the article discusses the same problem
from a methodological angle. It is argued that the structure of
the argument at the ground-floor level, in order to be successful,
must rely on finite but general ideas about justice. In this way,
the argument cannot achieve the absolute impartiality, but it can
be justified to others who initially do not underwrite liberal ideas
on justice.
Key words: Rawls, Political Liberalism, Original Position, Sandel,
Justice, Individual
Slavoj Zizek, Multiculturalism, Globalization and the New World
Order
Summary
An authentic policy is precisely the opposite of its classical
definition - it is in effect the art of the impossible. Contrary
to that, the omnipresent post-politics today (i.e. neoliberal capitalism)
is but the „administration of social issues“, relying on cooperation
of technocrats and liberal multiculturalists. Globalization is another
name for this advancing post-political logic, which slowly bars
access to real universalism. That is why multiculturalism is a view
from a global, hollow perspective of Eurocentric indifference and,
essentially, contempt of all really Other. Tolerance of this liberal
multiculturalism ends on its encounter with the really Other. On
the other hand, it makes the way for the interests of Capital in
its blindness for antagonisms and struggles within that same Other.
In the author's view, the only true answer is politicization, the
renouncing of the hypocritical neutrality and joining, the struggles
within each particular cultural identity in the name of real universal
emancipation.
Key words: Globalization, Multiculturalism, Universal, Capital,
Neoliberalism, Enjoyment, Post-Politics, Politicization
Tomislav Zigmanov, Will Kymlycka for the First Time in Serbia
Summary
Liberal thinker Will Kymlycka was probably among the first in the
world to attempt a complete and theoretically consistent deliberation
of the possibility and justification of theoretical foundation of
minotiry rights, from the angle of the leading ideological starting
positions of the liberal political-philosophical paradigm. However,
concrete articulation and efforts to acheive these are most often
referred to as the policy of multiculturalism. Kymlycka is, therefore
interested in the ways to find, from the vantage point of the liberal
political doctrine, the theoretically meaningful and morally justified
responses to the complex issues involved in the contextualization
of ethno-cultural differences, primarily in the modern societies
of the West. We, on our part, wanted to examine whether this was
successful and if so in what manner, by analysing the contents of
two of his books: Milticultural Citizenship (Liberal Theory of Minority
Rights) and Can Liberal Pluralism be Exported? (Western Political
Theory and Ethnic Relations in Eastern Europe). The essay, at the
same time, inquires into the issue of (non)reception of this discourse
in the ongoing liberal discussions in Serbia.
Key words: Multiculturalism, Liberalism, Ethno-Cultural Justice,
Minorities, Minority Rights
Miklos Biro, How to Reconcile Serbs, Croats and
Bosniaks?
Summary
The paper addresses the various aspects of reconciliation
among the nations previously engaged in conflict. Reconciliation
is viewed on three levels: individual, group and state. It also
offers the findings of two surveys the author carried out in 2001
- one in Serbia and the other in Prijedor and Vukovar. The author
also discusses the results of a regression analysis revealing of
the factors that help or thwart the reconciliation process.
Key words: Reconcilaotion, Conflict, Tolerance, Nation
Ljiljana Gavrilovic, McLuhan and the Dream of the Golden Age
of the Plum
Summary
This paper is the outcome of the research into the
cultural models within the "Serbian" culture and its overall
relation towards global culture. The Serbian culture still reveals
mythologization of the rural-patriarchal tradition, along with substantial
resistance towards others and a reduced ability to grasp the reasons
for the existence of the cultural conflict. General cultural education,
focused on the Internet as the ideal means of learning about others
as well as about us, is the key element in establishing a dialogue,
and thereby also understanding in an inter-cultural communication.
Key words: Culture, Inter-cultural Communication,
Cultural Conflict, Cyberspace
TOPIC: PUBLIC SPHERE
Djordje Pavicevic, Public sphere
Summary
The article has been written as an entry for the
Critical Dictionary of Civil Society. In the first part of the paper
defining components of the notion of public sphere are examined.
Public sphere is related to two social phenomena: a) making deliberate
efforts to develop an art of persuasion and to produce systematic
spreading of publicity; b) arranging a set of institutions that
are establishing public accessibility. Therefore, the definition
of the public sphere is ambiguous: a) in the first meaning it is
opposed to the secret and refers to the open, and visible, and accessible;
b) in the second meaning it is opposed to the private and refers
to a conceptual and physical area established by institutions. In
each of the two meaning the focus is on the political relevance
of the public sphere. The second part of the paper is a brief historical
reconstruction of the different conceptions developed over time.
In the third part some issues raised in current discussions on the
significance and structure of the public sphere are introduced.
Key words: Public/Private Sphere, Public Opinion,
Audience/Public, Social Rationality, Power Control, Manipulation
Bosko Telebakovic, Manipulating the Public
Summary
This paper considers the concepts of the public,
public opinion, propaganda and political marketing. The relation
between the public and the individual and mass, issues of privacy
and secrecy as well as the relation between freedom, truth and the
public are also explored here. The media considerations, the relation
between democracy and the public, the problem of world public and
a possibility of real public are discussed too.
Key Words: Public Sphere, Lie, Freedom, Marketing
Snjezana Milivojevic, Ideological Work of Media
Summary
This article focuses upon ideological nature of media
work. Media contribution to social stability and the status quo
is identified as their major „ideological effect“. Their everyday
activity is production of meaning. They naturalize social reality
by casting events in familiar, taken-for-granted, common sense terms.
Do media messages represent the world in a very particular way while
claiming to present it „objectively“ and „neutrally“? This question
guides the analysis of media routines from their „socially defining
role“ to formation of „dominant discourse“. It also provides for
how „signifying practice“ facilitates the reproduction of the existing
order.
Key Words: Ideological Effects of the Media, Semantic
Closure, Signifying Practice, Defining Reality, Media Frames, Dominant
Discourse.
Marijana Radulovic, Case Study: Religious (In)Tolerance
In Pravoslavlje And Glas Koncila (1989-1991)
Summary
This paper is a result of research and comparison
of religious (in)tolerance shown in articles published in Pravoslavqe,
official journal of Serbian Ortodox Church, and Glas Koncila, journal
of croatian Catolic Church, in period 1989-1991. The intention was
to investigate, using the relevant articles, how did those publications
forebode, accompany or (in)directly propagate and initiated (in)tolerance,
conflicts and even crimes.
Key Words: Religious (In)tolerance, Religious Journals,
Propaganda, Ideology.
ESSAYS
Djordje Joncic i Suzana Joncic, Year 1989
Summary
The causes and reasons for the bombing of Yugoslavia
in 1999 should be sought in the foreign policy of politicians in
Washington, but also of those in Berlin and London concerning S.
Milosevic - his political system and foreign (as well as internal)
policy. "Human rights", "sufferings", "humanitarian
disaster" in Kosovo are all but a common denominator for the
political consensus of Western politicians, which proved sufficient
to proclaim an international emergency and start the bombing or,
in other words, the toppling of Milosevic and his political system.
This text throws some light on the causes and "reasons"
existing on the Serbian side, primarily in 1989 when the whole thing
started and there were eight of them: 1) foreign and security policy;
2) political system in Belgrade, communism; 3) Milosevic's personal
characteristics (and of those close to him); 4) past, history; 5)
opposition of that time; 6) editors and journalists; 7) the so-called
Serbian intelligentsia; and 8) Milosevic and SPS' voters.
Key Words: Foreign Policy, Milosevic, Yugoslavia,
League of Communists, Washington.
Aljosa Mimica, Sieyes’ Revolutionary Concept Of The Nation
Summary
Here are presented, analyzed and discussed the basic ideas contained
in Abbé Emmanuel Sieyes' text What is the Third Estate? (Qu'est-ce
que le tiers état?), published in 1789, justly considered to be
one of the most influential pamphlets of all times. In contrast
to the »German« (ethnic, i.e. cultural) model of the nation, usually
related to Herder's Volksgeist, Sieyes' »rhetorical act« has formulated
the French model of the nation as a political community of citizens.
In the Third Estate, the national is derived from the social, the
nation from the third estate, in brief – the general is derived
from the particular. A new type of nation is constructed by Sieyes'
discursive/innovative »Copernican turn«. Instead of the previously
established formula: nation = (clergy + aristocracy) – third estate,
the equation shall henceforth be: nation = third estate – (clergy
+ aristocracy). At first sight, the formula looks equally exclusive
in both cases: the nation is constituted as pars pro toto that excludes
»somebody/something« from itself. However, in contrast to the old
type of nation which excludes at least one estate, the new type
of nation leaves the door open to all individuals who wish to join
it as equal and full members. Sieyes' revolutionary nation is thus
potentially inclusive. It is also demonstrated how three kinds of
discourse used by the Abbé (»discourse of justice«, »discourse of
will« and »discourse of reason«), supported by three kinds of argument
(socio-economic, political and historical), have been translated
into three overturning events (revocation of feudal privileges,
constitution of the National Assembly, and proclamation of Declaration
of the Rights of Man and Citizen. Sieyes' revolutionary nation,
conceptualized as »the body of associates living under a common
law and represented by the same legislature«, was transformed during
the French Third Republic into Ernest Renan's conception of the
»day-to-day contract«. Therefore, Sieyes directly influenced not
only the formation of the revolutionary phantasm about citizen’s
equality, but he also contributed to the construction of citizen’s
identity and citizen’s imaginarium, having left a deep and still
recognizable trace in the universal discourse of modern citizenship.
Key words: nation, Revolution, third estate,
privilegies, exclusivity/inclusivity.
Ljubdrag Simic, Istrian Vlach - One Warning
Summary
Excessively exploited issues of national rights of
certain ethnic entities are nowhere in the world finding the answers
that cannot be brought into question, or even justifiably criticized.
However, one thing is beyond doubt, namely that, especially in the
Balkans, mutual relations of various ethnic groups have always been
strong, not only in economic and cultural, but also biological terms.
The interesting point here is that these facts are first accepted
with respect to the presence of the Turks. They are assigned a substantial
share in the biological formation of our man, and precisely this
approach has no justification because the mountain parts - which
were the largest source of popular migrations downwards into the
valleys - have not been frequented by the Turks, and neither had
they wielded any real power there, if they were true Turks at all.
By contrast, we see the disregard of the relation with the Vlachs,
the old Balkan, most often Romanized element, and one which, having
been autochtonous, must have been the most represented in the racial
and ethno-psychological formation of our man.
Key words: Istra, Nation, Toponim, Politics
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