Sabrina P. Ramet – författare

A valuable and objective reassessment of the role of Serbia and Serbs in WWII. Today, Serbian textbooks praise the Chetniks of Draža MIhailovi? and make excuses for the collaboration of Milan Nedi?'s regime with the Axis. However, this new evaluation shows the more complex and controversial nature of the political alliances during the period.

Eastern Europe addresses the emergence of uncertain pluralism in the region following the disintegration of the communist regimes in 1989. Taking a broad historical approach, the volume considers issues and challenges that have marked Eastern Europe from 1939 through World War II and the era of socialism, up to the present. Eight comprehensive country studies are augmented by detailed assessments of economic developments, security issues, religious currents, cultural policies, and gender relations in the region.

Yugoslavia exploded onto the front pages of world newspapers in the early 1990s. The War of Yugoslav Succession of 1991–1995 convinced many that interethnic violence was endemic to politics in Yugoslavia and that the Yugoslav meltdown had occurred because of ancient hatreds. In this thematic history of Yugoslavia in the 20th century, Sabrina P. Ramet demonstrates that, on the contrary, the instability of the three 20th-century Yugoslav states—the interwar kingdom (1918–41), socialist Yugoslavia (1945–91), and the rump Yugoslav state created in 1992, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro—can be attributed to the failure of succeeding governments to establish the rule of law and political legitimacy. Ramet places emphasis on the failure of the state-building project and the absence of political legitimation, rather than on ineluctable or abstract historical forces. Based on extensive archival research and fieldwork and the culmination of more than two decades of study, The Three Yugoslavias is a major contribution to an understanding of Yugoslavia and its successor states.

Gender Politics in the Western Balkans traces the development of women's consciousness in the lands of the South Slavs from the early years of the twentieth century, on the eve of the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, to the situation during and after the Serbian Insurrectionary War of 1991–95. The book embraces historical chapters, contemporary political analyses, and cultural studies (focusing on literature and religion).Socialist Yugoslavia undertook a relatively unusual experiment during the forty-six years of its existence (1945–91)—to eliminate the sources of social, economic, and gender inequality while laying the foundation for a society in which women and men could enjoy complete equality in politics, in education and careers, and in family life. Although the aspiration was shared with other communist countries, Yugoslavia gave its experiment a unique twist by linking its program with institutional changes to be realized through self-management organs and a complicated delegate system. The socialist system represented an improvement where gender equality was concerned over the pre-existing system associated with the interwar Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but it did not fulfill its promises.Recognizing the need for a book that surveys the experience of South Slav women during the twentieth century, Sabrina Ramet commissioned essays from leading scholars in East European/Yugoslav studies and women’s studies for this volume. The resulting collection is arranged in rough chronological order, covering primarily Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia from before World War II until present day. Topics covered include the structures of traditional society, gender relations in the interwar period, anti-Fascist organizations, the socialist experience, and issues connected to post-socialist politics and the war, making this the most comprehensive and up-to-date book on the subject.Contributors are Andrei Simić, Thomas A. Emmert, Vlasta Jalušič, Barbara Jancar-Webster, Tatjana Pavlović, Žarana Papić, Julie Mertus, Obrad Kesić, Regan Ralph, Dorothy Thomas, Gordana Crnković, Mart Bax, Branka Magaš, and Sabrina Ramet.

With the collapse of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe between 1989 and 1991, right-wing extremist parties have emerged and claimed a prominence that they have not enjoyed since the early 1940s. The Radical Right in Central and Eastern Europe Since 1989 examines the activity of these groups in the region stretching from Germany to Russia. Few, if any, comparable books offer readers an overview of how the radical right is faring in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Russia. Among the countries reviewed, only Slovakia has right-wing extremists taking their seats as members of the ruling coalition. This volume shows that radical right activities can have pernicious effects even if right-wing extremists do not themselves succeed in obtaining seats in government. As the cases of Germany and Russia show, right-wing extremist parties may be capable of distorting the political agenda and forcing the government to take up issues that it might otherwise have ignored or treated differently. The Croatian and Serbian cases show that right-wing extremist parties may figure as part of a broader political milieu when their ideas are already accepted by the political mainstream.This volume is designed to give students, scholars, journalists, and other interested readers a useful introduction to the prospects of the far right in these post-communist countries. The contributors are John D. Bell, Frank Cibulka, Ivan Grdešić, Roger Griffin, Stephen Hanson, Laszlo Karsai, Julie Mostov, David Ost, Ognjen Pribićević, Sabrinia P. Ramet, Rudolf M. Rizman, Michael Shafir, Roman Solchanyk, and Christopher Williams.

This special issue provides important new scholarship from a variety of perspectives on the structure, ideology and political history of the central fascist group in interwar and Second World War Yugoslavia, the Croatian Ustasha. It is the first volume in English to closely explore the Ustasha’s Independent State of Croatia between 1941 and 1945, a period when it was an active collaborator with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, and largely responsible for Yugoslavia suffering the highest proportion of national casualties in the Second World War. By using the top scholars in the field to explore the nature of the NDH, The Independent State of Croatia 1941-45 contributes to scholarly understandings of Croatian nationalism, Balkan politics, European fascism, and genocide in the Second World War.

The Yugoslav break up and conflict have given rise to a considerable literature offering dramatically different interpretations of what happened. But just how do the various interpretations relate to each other? This ambitious new book by Sabrina Ramet, an eminent commentator on recent Balkan politics and history, reviews and analyses more than 130 books about the troubled region and compares their accounts, theories, and interpretations of events. Ramet surveys the major debates which divide the field, alternative accounts of the causes of Yugoslavia's violent collapse, and the scholarly debates concerning humanitarian intervention. Rival accounts are presented side by side for easy comparison. Thinking about Yugoslavia examines books on Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Kosovo which were published in English, German, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, and Italian, thus offering the English-speaking reader a unique insight into the controversies.

The Yugoslav break up and conflict have given rise to a considerable literature offering dramatically different interpretations of what happened. But just how do the various interpretations relate to each other? This ambitious new book by Sabrina Ramet, an eminent commentator on recent Balkan politics and history, reviews and analyses more than 130 books about the troubled region and compares their accounts, theories, and interpretations of events. Ramet surveys the major debates which divide the field, alternative accounts of the causes of Yugoslavia's violent collapse, and the scholarly debates concerning humanitarian intervention. Rival accounts are presented side by side for easy comparison. Thinking about Yugoslavia examines books on Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Kosovo which were published in English, German, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, and Italian, thus offering the English-speaking reader a unique insight into the controversies.

The early 1980s brought dramatic changes in East-West relations. The decade began with the death of Yugoslavia's Tito, the birth of Poland's Solidarity trade union, and the U.S. election of Ronald Reagan as president. These key developments, together with the growing financial insolvency of the Soviet bloc and shifts in power in the Kremlin—culminating in the election of Mikhail Gorbachev as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1985—signalled the end of an era. Since then, U.S. relations with Europe have charted a new course, influenced especially by the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the expansion of NATO, and the growing strength of the European Union. This volume analyzes U.S. relations with Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Poland, and Ukraine, and examines the new role for NATO in the post-Cold War world and the evolving dynamics in the U.S.-EU partnership. Through their assessment of mutual perceptions, evolving interests, and clashing agendas, the contributors offer a fresh and thoughtful exploration of the relationship between the United States and the major European states.

Religious organizations in many countries of the communist world have served as agents for the preservation, defense, and reinforcement of nationalist feelings, and in playing this role have frequently been a source of frustration to the Communist Party elites. Although the relationship between governments and religious groups varies according to the particular country and group in question, the mosaic of these relationships constitutes a revealing picture of the political reform shaping the lives of Soviet and East European citizens.

This book is volume two of a three-volume work, Christianity Under Stress, which focuses on the experiences of Christian churches in contemporary communist and socialist societies. In this volume a distinguished group of experts examines the changing relationship of the Catholic church to contemporary communist and socialist societies in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia.Catholicism has, on the one hand, traditionally regarded earthly life as of secondary importance-as an instrument of spiritual transformation-and, on the other, has ascribed great value to the early institutions of the church, taking great interest in temporal matters that affects its institutional concerns. Against the backdrop of this duality, the church has changed over the centuries, adapting to local and national conditions. Catholicism and Politics in Communist Societies surveys these local and national adaptations in their historical contexts, linking the past experience of the church to its present circumstances. Organized around themes of tradition vs. modernity, hierarchy vs. lower clergy, and institutional structure vs. grass-roots organization, this comprehensive volume presents a detailed, country-by-country portrait of the political and social status of the church today in communist and socialist settings.Contributors. Pedro Ramet, Arthur F. McGovern, Roman Solchanyk, Ivan Hvat, Robert F. Goeckel, C. Chrypinski, Milan J. Reban, Leslie Laszlo, Janice Broun, Eric O. Hanson, Stephen Denney, Thomas E. Quigley, Humberto Belli, Hansjakob Stehle, George H. Williams

Social Currents in Eastern Europe traces the diverse social currents that have developed alongside and interacted with political and economic forces to bring about change in Eastern Europe. In this second edition-which significantly updates and expands the previous edition to include a new introduction, revisions throughout, as well as five new chapters, including timely material on ethnic war in the former Yugoslavia-Ramet extends and develops the theory of social change upon which the book is based.Ramet draws on interviews conducted over a ten-year period with individuals active in arenas for social change-intellectual dissent, feminism, religious activism, youth cultures and movements, and trade unionism-in eight East European countries: East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. She shows how the processes leading to the ultimate collapse of communism began more than a decade earlier and how they were necessarily manifested in spheres as diverse as religion and rock music.Ramet also examines the consequences of the "Great Transformation" and analyzes the numerous unresolved problems that these societies currently confront, whether it be in the arena of economics, political legitimation, or the challenges of establishing a civil society free of chauvinism.

Social Currents in Eastern Europe traces the diverse social currents that have developed alongside and interacted with political and economic forces to bring about change in Eastern Europe. In this second edition-which significantly updates and expands the previous edition to include a new introduction, revisions throughout, as well as five new chapters, including timely material on ethnic war in the former Yugoslavia-Ramet extends and develops the theory of social change upon which the book is based.Ramet draws on interviews conducted over a ten-year period with individuals active in arenas for social change-intellectual dissent, feminism, religious activism, youth cultures and movements, and trade unionism-in eight East European countries: East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania. She shows how the processes leading to the ultimate collapse of communism began more than a decade earlier and how they were necessarily manifested in spheres as diverse as religion and rock music.Ramet also examines the consequences of the "Great Transformation" and analyzes the numerous unresolved problems that these societies currently confront, whether it be in the arena of economics, political legitimation, or the challenges of establishing a civil society free of chauvinism.

Nihil Obstat-Latin for "nothing stands in the way"-examines the interplay between religion and politics in East-Central Europe and Russia. While focusing on the postcommunist, late twentieth century, Sabrina P. Ramet discusses developments as far back as the eleventh century to explain the patterns that have developed over time and to show how they still affect contemporary interecclesiastical relations as well as those among Church, state, and society.Based on interview research in Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Macedonia, and on materials published in German, Italian, Serbo-Croatian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Russian, and English, Ramet paints a clear picture of the political and religious fragility of former communist states, which are experiencing some aspects of freedom and choice for the first time. With its comprehensive discussion of the largest religious institutions in the area, especially the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, and its extensive survey of nontraditional religious associations that have become active in the region since 1989, this study makes a distinct contribution to growing discussions about the rise of fundamentalism and the inner dilemmas of modernity. With its depth of information and thoughtful exploration of cultural traditions, Nihil Obstat uniquely presents the ramifications and complexities of European religion in a postcommunist world.

The communists of East Central Europe came to power promising to bring about genuine equality, paying special attention to achieving gender equality, to build up industry and create prosperous societies, and to use music, art, and literature to promote socialist ideals. Instead, they never succeeded in filling more than a third of their legislatures with women and were unable to make significant headway against entrenched patriarchal views; they considered it necessary (with the sole exception of Albania) to rely heavily on credits to build up their economies, eventually driving them into bankruptcy; and the effort to instrumentalize the arts ran aground in most of the region already by 1956, and, in Yugoslavia, by 1949. Communism was all about planning, control, and politicization. Except for Yugoslavia after 1949, the communists sought to plan and control not only politics and the economy, but also the media and information, religious organizations, culture, and the promotion of women, which they understood in the first place as involving putting women to work. Inspired by the groundbreaking work of Robert K. Merton on functionalist theory, this book shows how communist policies were repeatedly undermined by unintended consequences and outright dysfunctions.

The communists of East Central Europe came to power promising to bring about genuine equality, paying special attention to achieving gender equality, to build up industry and create prosperous societies, and to use music, art, and literature to promote socialist ideals. Instead, they never succeeded in filling more than a third of their legislatures with women and were unable to make significant headway against entrenched patriarchal views; they considered it necessary (with the sole exception of Albania) to rely heavily on credits to build up their economies, eventually driving them into bankruptcy; and the effort to instrumentalize the arts ran aground in most of the region already by 1956, and, in Yugoslavia, by 1949. Communism was all about planning, control, and politicization. Except for Yugoslavia after 1949, the communists sought to plan and control not only politics and the economy, but also the media and information, religious organizations, culture, and the promotion of women, which they understood in the first place as involving putting women to work. Inspired by the groundbreaking work of Robert K. Merton on functionalist theory, this book shows how communist policies were repeatedly undermined by unintended consequences and outright dysfunctions.

This groundbreaking treatment of post-communist developments in East Central Europe examines politics, economics, media, religious institutions, transitional justice, gender inequality, and literature, highlighting the overt functions, latent functions, and side effects associated with each sphere.Communism in East Central Europe had cracks from the beginning, as uprisings in East Germany in 1953 and Hungary in 1956 demonstrated. But with the establishment of the Independent Trade Union Solidarity in Poland in the Summer of 1980, communism went into steady decline and, between 1988 and 1991, crumbled. What followed has been an unsteady transition to various forms of often corrupt pluralism with democracy doing best in the Czech Republic (with the exception of the years 2017–2021) and Slovenia, and worst in Hungary, Albania, Serbia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Drawing on the functionalist theory of Robert K. Merton, the authors examine what policymakers – communist and post-communist – were or are trying to accomplish, the intended and unintended results of these policies, and the side-effects they have produced. This volume will be of interest not only to specialists in East Central Europe but also to graduate and undergraduate students, members of the diplomatic corps, and general readers.

This groundbreaking treatment of post-communist developments in East Central Europe examines politics, economics, media, religious institutions, transitional justice, gender inequality, and literature, highlighting the overt functions, latent functions, and side effects associated with each sphere.Communism in East Central Europe had cracks from the beginning, as uprisings in East Germany in 1953 and Hungary in 1956 demonstrated. But with the establishment of the Independent Trade Union Solidarity in Poland in the Summer of 1980, communism went into steady decline and, between 1988 and 1991, crumbled. What followed has been an unsteady transition to various forms of often corrupt pluralism with democracy doing best in the Czech Republic (with the exception of the years 2017–2021) and Slovenia, and worst in Hungary, Albania, Serbia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Drawing on the functionalist theory of Robert K. Merton, the authors examine what policymakers – communist and post-communist – were or are trying to accomplish, the intended and unintended results of these policies, and the side-effects they have produced. This volume will be of interest not only to specialists in East Central Europe but also to graduate and undergraduate students, members of the diplomatic corps, and general readers.

This book offers an analysis of values in Hungary.Following the proposition that civic values are crucial to liberal democracy and conducive to international peace, this book examines the extent to which these values are respected and practised in a number of policy spheres, with chapters devoted to the political system, the media, religion, relations with the European Union, history textbooks, cinema, Roma, and the attitudes of Hungarian women voters. The book also charts how, under Prime Minister Orbán, Hungary has gravitated away from the civic values spelled out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of the European Union.This book will prove to be of great use to scholars and students of democracy, East Central Europe, minorities, Hungarian contemporary history and politics, civic culture, gender studies, nationalism, human rights, and more broadly the social sciences.

This book offers an analysis of values in Hungary.Following the proposition that civic values are crucial to liberal democracy and conducive to international peace, this book examines the extent to which these values are respected and practised in a number of policy spheres, with chapters devoted to the political system, the media, religion, relations with the European Union, history textbooks, cinema, Roma, and the attitudes of Hungarian women voters. The book also charts how, under Prime Minister Orbán, Hungary has gravitated away from the civic values spelled out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of the European Union.This book will prove to be of great use to scholars and students of democracy, East Central Europe, minorities, Hungarian contemporary history and politics, civic culture, gender studies, nationalism, human rights, and more broadly the social sciences.

Southeast European politics cannot be understood without taking ethnic minorities into account. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the politics of ethnic minorities, examining both their political parties and issues of social distance, migration, and ethnic boundaries, as well as issues related to citizenship and integration. Coverage includes detailed analyses of Hungarian minority parties in Romania, Albanian minority parties in Macedonia, Serb minority parties in Croatia, Bosniak minority parties in Serbia, and various minority parties in Montenegro, as well as the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, a largely Turkish party, in Bulgaria.

Building democracy in societies that have known only authoritarian rule for half a century is complicated. Taking the post-Yugoslav region as its case study, this volume shows how success with democratisation depends on various factors, including establishing the rule of law, the consolidation of free media, and society's acceptance of ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. Surveying the seven successor states, the authors argue that Slovenia is in a class by itself as the most successful, with Croatia and Serbia not far behind. The other states - Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Kosovo - are all struggling with problems of corruption, poverty, and unemployment. The authors treat the issue of values as a policy problem in its own right, debating the extent to which values have been transformed by changes in education and the media, how churches and women's organisations have entered into the policy debate, and whether governments have embraced a programme designed to effect changes in values.