Nationalism, liberalism and liberal nationalism in post‐war Croatia^*

Abstract

This article analyses ethnic nationalism and liberalism as expressed in the views of Croatians in the aftermath of the 1991-5 war -a war during which ethnicnationalist rhetoric played a large role. Because the war was part of systemic change in the nation, including the adoption of more democratic and capitalist social formation, we also anticipated economic and political liberalism to be present among a sizeable portion of the population. We provide an analysis of the structural conditions fostering these sentiments, an analysis potentially applicable to a range of societies presently in transition. Based on 1996 survey interviews (N 5 2,202) conducted throughout Croatia, we show that ethnic nationalism in the Croatian context is more widely shared than is liberalism. The effect of religious fundamentalism, educational attainment and media exposure are as predicted, based on theories of liberalism and nationalism. Wartime experiences and position in the occupational system have a weaker and more mixed influence than hypothesised. Perhaps most importantly, we find that three out of five Croatians embrace both ethnic-national views and views that are distinctly liberal, suggesting that liberal nationalism is now dominant in Croatia. The characteristics of groups holding differing views suggest that recent events and current changes in Croatia bode positively for continued growth of liberal sentiments, but this will not necessarily be at the expense of ethnic nationalism.Post-war Croatia provides an opportunity to examine several critical issues regarding state disintegration and nation formation. As with many nations in transition since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Croatia appears poised between two political agendas. On the one hand, it can continue in the postTudjman era to pursue a politics of ethnic identity that promotes interests and rights associated with being Croatian, assigning all others to the status of

Individual and Contextual Influences of War on Ethnic Prejudice in Croatia

“…We tested our models with several other war‐related individual experiences, but none had any significant effect. In a study of ethnic nationalism based on the same data set as ours, Massey et al. (2003) also find that individual war experiences are a surprisingly weak influence.…”

“…(2003) also find that individual war experiences are a surprisingly weak influence. The authors describe their findings as follows: “Contrary to our expectation, far from being the most salient determinant of ethnic nationalism, war experiences influence ethnic nationalist sentiments less strongly than religiosity, education and professional status” (Massey et al. 2003:71).…”

“…Soldiers are, of course, highly involved in military activities, and if war activities contribute to increased levels of prejudice, being a soldier should have a positive effect on prejudice. However, Massey et al. (2003) find no effect of being a Croatian soldier on ethnic nationalism, a phenomenon related to ethnic prejudice.…”

“…Individual war experiences were briefly mentioned and included in the analysis in the form of two indexes, but without extensive conceptualization and with a rather unclear operationalization. A somewhat more thorough analysis of individual war experiences is presented in a study of ethnic and liberal nationalism in Croatia (Massey et al. 2003).…”

“…Experiences of war: Our survey data contain a fairly large number of questions related to different aspects of war‐related experiences. Roughly following the approach of Massey et al. (2003), we can divide the questions into four categories: (1) participation in the armed forces; (2) damage and loss of material property; (3) psychological reactions and disposition of respondents; and (4) a “miscellaneous” category consisting of different kinds of violent experiences, such as the death or injury of family members or friends, etc.…”