Social reforms had an important position in the process of transition changes in Serbia in the previous decade. Their strategic framework and aims have been defined in the first years after the 'democratic changes' of 2000 and their realization followed by a series of problems. The transition from the 'socialist welfare state' to the concept of 'active social policy' has been in compliance with the accepted model of (liberal) reforms and changes in the institutional sphere. Analysis of effects and achievements have pointed to an inadeaqucy of the accepted model and deficiencies in the practice. From the point of view of the current situation and expected changes in the future, there is an obvious need for a comprehensive evaluation of cause of (un)success of social reforms. The reason for that lies in the elimination of insufficiencies and creation of a basis for the construction of a system in compliance with the national objectives, the European standards and global challenges.
The term politics, from its origin until nowadays, has been closely related to coercion and effects of coercion. The first rulers were finding support in a belief in the divine nature of power, but since, in time, this belief faded, the solution was found in physical superiority of rulers. The development of politics as an activity by which a community can be governed instrumentally, conditioned its closer linkage to force. Politics was sometimes identified with force, and sometimes politics was using force as an instrument for taming the bullying by others. Undoubtedly, the man is a rational and instinctive being. Monopolization of bullying within political activity made it possible to place the force, depending on the circumstances, into the service of one or the other attribute of human nature. Integration processes in political, economic, military and other areas, significantly contributed to changing the role of a national state in its formerly inviolable spheres, even in those elements that are considered classic attributes of the state as an institution (sovereignty, independence, monetary policy, defense, state power legitimacy, etc). Does this power, which is 'taken away' from the national state, go away, through integrative processes with other international subjects, to some distant power and alienated centers, or does it, on the contrary, enter the corpus of political activity that strengthens its overall position? Without immersing into more profound analysis about what is closer to the truth, it is a fact that through integrative processes a number of 'state' activities is transferred to joint institutions. In the spirit of this paper, the most important institutions are those which decide about organization, preparing, functioning, and using of the state (interstate) power. Strategic solutions concerning these matters, are a part of domestic and intergovernmental policy. They are products of a great number of internal and external factors, starting from economic and institutional, to social and cultural-traditional, and to international.
Joint effect of 2008 economic crises and continous world-wide present deficite of political legitimacy have in 2011 given birth to global resistance, but also facilitated development of its new strategies and tactics. Aldough we are still by large able to understand these contemporary models of collective action with help of New Social Movement Theory, today they objectivelly grasp a wider field of meaning, mainly for reason of their demands for radical transformation of both economic and political system. Contemporary social movements are still struggling for re-interpretation of meaning, and identity issues, but not any more for any particular goal. Instead, they seek systemic change. This extremelly important shift of strategic orientation, which makes new movements a bit old – that is classical, remains in our oppinion, undervalued both in academic, and general public for the reasons that we will try to comprehend, in this writing. ; Sadejstvo udara ekonomske krize iz 2008. i kontinuiranog deficita političkog legitimiteta dovode 2011. do pojave globalnog otpora, ali i do razvoja njegovih kvalitativno novih strategija i taktika. Iako je savremene modele kolektivne akcije dobrim delom i dalje moguće razumeti uz pomoć teorije novih društvenih pokreta, oni danas objektivno zahvataju jedno šire polje, najpre zbog zahteva za radikalnom promenom u ukupnom ekonomskom i političkom sistemu. Savremeni društveni pokreti i dalje se bore za reinterpretaciju značenja i priznanje sopstvenog identiteta, ali ne više za bilo koje pojedinačno pitanje, već za sveobuhvatnu promenu sistema. Ta izuzetno važna promena strateške orijentacije, koja nove pokrete čini pomalo starim – upravo klasičnim, ostaje, čini nam se, nedovoljno primećena iz razloga koje ćemo pokušati da rasvetlimo.
Током последњих неколико деценија били смо сведоци интензивних промена света у коме живимо. Иза доминантне слике технолошког прогреса, с једне, и непрестаног нивелисања политичких моћи, с друге стране, промене су се одвијале и на свим друштвеним нивоима, задирући у суштину темељних поставки културе модерног света. Разградња традиционалних оквира идентитета, релативизација система вредности и снажни импулси личне слободе били су врста улазнице у постмодерно стање духа, које је, тежећи ка помирењу, заправо до крајности продубило јаз између цивилизације као хумане креације и цивилизације као система per se, који умногоме почива на негирању универзалних вредности човека. Темат Хуманистичке науке пред изазовима постдисциплинарности и тржишта замишљен је као платформа за размену искустава међу еминентим научним радницима из различитих земаља. ; Over the last couple of decades the world we live in has been going through intensive change. Behind the dominant image of technological progress on the one hand, and the continuing redistribution of political power on the other, changes have been occurring on all social levels, hitting at the heart of the basic assumptions of modern culture. The deconstruction of traditional frameworks of identity, the relativization of value systems and powerful impulses of personal freedom have served as a kind of ticket to the postmodern condition which has, while aspiring to reconcile, led to a fundamental deepening of the rift between civilization as a humane creation and civilization as a system per se which largely rests on negating the universal value of humanity. ; Тема броја: Друштвене и хуманистичке науке пред изазовима пост-дисциплинарности и тржишта / ур. Александра Павићевић / Topic of the Issue: Social Sciences and the Humanities: Facing the Challenges of Postdisciplinarity and the Market (ed. Aleksandra Pavićević)
In this article, the processes of re-stratification in Serbia during the period from the end of the 1980s until recent times are analyzed on the basis of findings of several empirical investigations. In the first part of the text, the author points out that a systemic change implies not only quantitative changes in the control and distribution of social resources, but also changes in the way of constituting the basic social groups, and the forms of their relations, which means that the groups themselves (ruling elites, middle classes, and even manual workers) in socialism and in capitalism must be defined differently. In the second part of the text, attention is drawn to the changes in three areas of the stratificational system in Serbia: mobility, economic differentiation and value orientations. In the field of social mobility, an increase of self-recruitment of all basic classes is established, but also, in particular, a strengthening of barriers between manual workers and higher social strata. Furthermore, the author points out an increase in economic differentiation, and a growing importance of private property to this differentiation (the singling out of major private entrepreneurs on the top of the material status hierarchy). It is shown that, on the level of values, all classes (including the ruling class and the middle class) are characterized by inconsistency, in terms of a pronounced presence of statist-distributive values, which hampers the process of consolidation of a new institutional and normative (market and pluralistic) order in Serbia. Adapted from the source document.
