It is only exceptionally that social scientists are given a chance to experience
firsthand such a dramatic condensation of social developments as Serbian/Yugoslav scholars witnessed in September and October 2000. The federal presidential and parliamentary elections of 24 September lost by Slobodan Miloševiæ
and his political forces, and the subsequent defense of election results in mass
demonstrations throughout Serbia, culminating in the grand rally in Belgrade on
5 October whereby the regime was forced to acknowledge defeat and cede power peacefully to the Democratic Opposition of Serbia and the new president Vojislav Koštunica, constitute what is sometimes called “the last revolution of the
20th century” or the “downfall of the last dictatorship in Europe”. The social scientists therefore had a unique opportunity to see many of their reflections, theoretical concepts and argumentations played out, as it were, in front of their eyes.
In the case of the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory the link between
“theory” and “social reality” was even more direct. Many of its members had long
been politically active on the opposition scene under Miloševiæ, and some of
them emerged as the chief actors of the democratic changeover of the year 2000,
including the crucial figures of President Vojislav Koštunica, chairman of the Federal Parliament Dragoljub Miæunoviæ, and the current Serbian Prime Minister
Zoran Ðinðiæ. Thus the Institute felt it its duty to provide a setting where these vitally important political events could be scrutinized, their initial results critically
evaluated, and their possible future course charted. Such a setting was provided
at the International Conference “Social and Political Changes in Serbia/Yugoslavia: Prospects and Limitations”, held in Belgrade on 2 and 3 March 2001, with the
participation of nearly a hundred social scientists from Serbia and the neighboring countries, belonging to disciplines as diverse as political science, sociology,
anthropology, social psychology, legal studies, international relations, and so on.
The Conference was held thanks to the grants generously provided by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Freedom House, and the Ministry of Science of Serbia.
This book is the English translation of the volume which appeared some
months ago in the Serbian language. It contains most of the papers presented at
the Conference, along with several articles written later on, by people who for
various reasons could not take part in the Conference itself. The role of the editors was limited to collecting the papers and grouping them under the appro-
priate headings. This, we believe, was the best way to adequately reflect the
vast diversity of the views expressed at the Conference and to retain the promise of a fruitful dialogue between particular contributions. The date of writing is
indicated at the end of each paper, so as to enable temporal contextualization.
For the publication of the Volume we are indebted to the Belgrade Office of the
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.