Collective Identity and Loyalty to National States in the Balkans

Question of loyalty to national state rises in the context of presence of different cultural – ethnic and religious collective identities in it. We explore how states were formed in the Balkans and why multinational states, former Yugoslavia being the most tragic example, failed to win loyalty of large minorities. Just as in 19th century Europe, dissolution of regional communist regimes revamped nationalism as a battle for democratic society and ethnic (or religious in Bosnia and Herzegovina) self-determination. Proclaimed democratisation, again or additionally (like in former Yugoslavia) emphasized divisions among collective identities. Civic nationalism although sometimes promoted by political elites was never rooted in the Balkans and different groups (most prominent collective identities are ethnic and religious) tried to homogenize and expand space they control.