Effects of Nationalism in Countries in Transition: Attitudes toward Nationalism in Political Culture

Abstract

Nationalism represents a serious challenge for the countries in transition. It is a factor which immensely influences and shapes the transitional process in politics in all South-Eastern European countries. It represents a challenge for the post-communist countries especially for countries like the former republics of ex-Yugoslavia, since, as Robert Kaplan points out in his foreword chapter to the book Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History, " in the Balkans, no wars are 'local' ". [1]Societies in Europe are experiencing remarkable changes especially in politics and economy through empowerment of their democratic political and economic systems. Nationalism and nationalist attitudes are present in political cultures in countries of transition despite efforts for implementing democracy, rapid changes and modernization of societies at institutional level and social structure and despite the newly established environment of these societies. Countries in transition borrowed the so-called 'copy-paste' action, and tried the implementation of such systems without considering the specifics of countries in transition which subsequently faced the variances, inadequacy and quite often the inability for the implementation of the latter. Therefore, this paper aims to focus on political culture of transitional countries, with a specific emphasis on Kosovo, covering nationalism and the process of democratization as a very important part of its political system and its political culture.