Yugoslavs and Europeans Compared

Abstract

Drawing on Sekulić, Massey and Hodson’s seminal article ‘Who were the‎ Yugoslavs?’, this paper compares the share and determinants of identifying as‎ Yugoslavs during socialism with the panorama of primary European identification.‎ Eurobarometer surveys containing data on European identification are‎ utilized to that end. The study takes in consideration social and political contexts ‎that shaped supranational identification in particular Yugoslav socialist‎ republics and EU member states. Our findings show low levels of Europeans‎ and Yugoslavs in both polities. The results also show that nationally specific‎ contexts affect both the prevalence of European identification and its determinants.‎ There are considerable differences in the level of European identification‎ among EU countries, and statistical analyses of the Belgian, French and‎ German cases further showed that different factors shape it. Of all the variables,‎ non-exclusive nationalities have been the strongest predictors of supranational ‎identification in both Socialist Yugoslavia and the EU.‎