Miodrag A. Jovanović Law Faculty, University of Belgrade Serbia: From Ethnic Nationhood to Multicultural Citizenship Introductory note Nation-building vs. State-building Yugoslavism – Rival Identity that Failed Ethnic/Civic Nation Dichotomy Reconsidered Towards New Constitutional Definition of Serbia Concluding remarks

Ethnic vs. civic nationalism ethnic nationalism - “the sense of national identity and loyalty shared by a group of people united among themselves and distinguished from others by one or more of the following factors: language, religion, culture; and, most important, a belief in the common genetic or biological descent of the group.” civic nationalism - “the collective identity of a group of people born or living in a specified territory with a shared history, and owing allegiance to a sovereign government whose powers are defined and delimited by laws enacted and enforced through institutions such as parliament or Congress that evoke common loyalty to powerful symbols and myth of nationality.” (James Mc Pherson)

Serbian nationhood concept belief in common ethnic descent distinctive language and Cyrillic alphabet shared history Orthodox Christianity

Road to independence the phase of rebellion leaders (вождови) and fight for statehood ( ) the phase of vassal state ( ) the phase of independent Serbia ( )

Road to ethno-cultural heterogeneity census (homogenous society) – inhabitants – 98,6% (Orthodox Christians), 0,5% (Muslims), 0,28% (Catholics), and less than 1% (other denominations - Protestants, Moses Church etc.) after the 1912/13 territorial expansions, Serbia acquired new citizens – from Kosovo and Metohija and Sanjak, as well as from Macedonia In the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Serbia entered the total territory of km², while Vojvodina (Banat, Bačka, Baranja and Srem) entered some km² and approximately inhabitants

Obstacles to Yugoslav identity the absence of unified language standards (prevalent dialect in Serbian literature ekavski, and in Croatian ijekavski standard) the direction of a new culture and identity formation (Serbian intellectuals - distinct national characteristics should be fused into one new identity, grounded in the historical struggle for liberation of all South Slavic peoples; Croatian and Slovenian intellectuals - the unity should be based on a cultural diversity) there was no such thing as the common Yugoslav history

Ethnic/civic nation dichotomy reconsidered the myth of civic nation: “you are the political principles you share with other like-minded individuals” the myth of ethnic nation: “we can each trace our cultural identities back to some discrete ethnic community; these communities maintain their original character through time” both concepts, under specific circumstances, are apt to produce intolerance and exclusiveness during their formation, all nations exhibit ethnic and territorial components in varying proportions at particular moments of their history dichotomy to be used as the accessory methodological apparatus for the description of historical development and prevalent existing elements of different nations

Constitutional definition of Serbia Republic of Serbia is a “democratic state of all citizens living in it, which is based on the human` and citizens` liberties and rights, the rule of law and the social justice.” (1990 Constitution) avoiding the ethno-exclusionary constitutional definition of statehood if one constitutional order is to provide special set of individual and collective rights for its minority nations, then the conceptual consistency implies the constitutional definition of statehood that differentiates between majority and minority nations (Serbia ia a “state of the Serbian nation and all national minorities living in it...”)