Politicia u Srbiji: standardi i samorefleksija
In: Politicka misao, Volume 46, Issue 2, p. 166-181
In this text, the state of political theory in Serbia is looked into with regard to the achieved level of self-reflection & professionalisation. Political theory is developing as a special way of research into politics which, in addition to refusing to fit to any discipline-related definitions, has its own professional standards of argumentation, approaches, theories & heroes; however, it has no well-balanced methodological instruction & no professional training. It is a pluralized field of research which tends to reject the delegitimizing & self-positioning practices, the aim of which is to pass judgment, exclude or label, & develops standards of justification & criticism. The second part of the text puts forward the assertion that political theory in Serbia is far from achieving these standards. This is not due to lack of relevant works, but to lack of self-reflection on what has been accomplished so far. There are two reasons for such a state of affairs. First, a rather unfortunate history of the discipline: it developed initially within the ideological surroundings of Marxism, which did not leave much room for theory, & then through political disorder & conflicts of the 1990s, which encouraged delegitimizing practices & self-positioning rather than criticism & self-reflection. The second reason has to do with inadequate institutionalization of political science & social sciences in general, which apparently leaves enough room for political theory, but not for professional self-identification. Adapted from the source document.