Balkan Academic Book Review 19/2000
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Mladen Lazic (Ed.) Protest in Belgrade, Winter of Discontent, Budapest: CEU
Press, 1999. vii + 236 pp. Tables, figures, photograph, appendix. 49.95 USD
(Cloth), 22.95 (Paperback), ISBN 963-9116-45-9 (First published in Serbian
as 'Ajmo,'Ajde, svi u setnju, Belgrade: Medija centar & ISI FF, 1997)

Reviewed by Lazar Nikolic (University of Belgrade). Email: lnikolic@...
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This book summarizes numerous important perspectives related to one of the
most important social movements if the last decade of the 20th century -
the civil and student peace demonstrations which took place in Belgrade
during the winter of 1996/97. The two events appeared almost
simultaneously, emerged as a result of the electoral fraud committed by the
ruling Socialist Party of Serbia in the second round of local elections in
many of the large towns in Serbia. This "study of society calling for
democracy" is based on interviews with over 1000 civilians and students.
The whole research was carried out and completed while the demonstrations
were still in progress and before the oucome of protest was known. This
work, in which the authors attempted to develop a new sensibility in social
science by reflecting the mass protest is divided into three integral
parts, preceded by introduction.
Starting from the understanding of historical background as an 'escalation
of the crisis and a factor of limiting social transformation', Mladen Lazic
fragmentary introduces us with elements of political sphere and economic
reality in Serbia during the nineties. He links elements of economic,
political and legitimacy foundation of the regime with the processes of the
erosion of the regime legitimacy as a result of its refusal to at least
start the structural adjustment of the economy. He presents the middle
strata account for the majority of the population which defended the stolen
votes in public demonstration. Prompted by their position and the initiated
delegitimation of the regime, through their own action, the middle strata
simultaneously experience their own homogenization process, becoming the
main proponents of the movement against the ruling group. In his analyses
of the historical background, M. Lazic also included some factors that show
the collapse of disintegration of the former Yugoslav state (SFRY). Whole
framework for crisis resolution includes also the economic system, wars in
the closest surroundings, previous elections etc.
In the first thematic block Marija Babovic focused on the analysis of the
protest as 'the potential for an active society'. She presented
socio-demographic characteristics of protest participants, including sex,
age, educational, professional, marital, residential, political and ethnic
distribution. The socio-demographic distribution and political profile of
protest participants clearly reveal that lawbreaking and the usurped
victory of the democratic opposition directly provoked the urban and
educated segments of civil Belgrade and other large towns in Serbia to
wider civilian revolt. Mass participation in the protest, not only in terms
of numbers but also in terms of quality confirms the assumed lack of
homogeneity of participants with respect to numerous socio-demographic and
political characteristics. Analyzing the general character of the protest
and its prospects for democratization in Serbia, Slobodan Cvejic introduced
us to the most important protest demands, indicated motives of citizens for
joining the protest, interpreted participants' expectations of regime
change, analyzed the time frame of the protest. The presented material
leads to the conclusion that the protest was of a remarkably civil nature.
In the situation where the majority lives at or below the poverty line,
Cvejic concludes that universal ideals have equal value to economic
interests, which is not surprising in a view of the stratal composition of
the demonstrators. The social structure of protest participants tells us
that democratic, liberal and civic values could show an ideological
reflection of their interest of the middle strata in an overall
modernization of society. In his research Vladimir Vuletic reflected
different aspects of demonstrators' presence in the protest, their behavior
and perception of prospects. On the bases of analytical 96/97 observations
the protests in Serbian towns may be described in terms of a modernization
process according to the model already used in Eastern European countries.
Vuletic offered a look into ideological preferences and the wider meaning
of a practical political effort implying the use of two key analytical
concepts: that of a vision of a desirable society (desirable direction of
social change) and the perception of the public enemy (the most important
obstacles to the intended practical objectives). By analyzing social and
political consciousness of protest participants Vuletic provided us with
the guidelines for establishing a number of important points: protest
participants' social profile (consistency vs. confusion), including
professional and socio-political consciousness (radicalism and pragmatism).
The social and political consciousness of participants in the Belgrade
protest appeared to be largely underdeveloped and controversial. This basic
finding did not come as a surprise because actors of political events are
rarely generally aware of the overall social meaning of their engagement
and all its relevant consequences. The Belgrade protest appeared more
rational than other similar social movements, with a clear motive - to
challenge the obvious falsification of local election results in Belgrade
and other Serbian towns. In the article titled "The Walk in a Gender
Perspective" Marina Blagojevic addressed the gender issues in the Belgrade
protest in different spheres, on various levels using different
methodological procedures. Gender dimension is traced along the lines of
participation behavior and attitudes of women protesters. She noticed that
the protest successfully reflected the paradox of the women's position in
the period of transition. On the one hand, women already have strong
presence in the public sphere, no doubt attributable to the socialist era,
that have, indeed, strengthened their positions in the private sphere
('self-sacrificing micro-matriarchy'). On the other hand, the patriarchal
culture is becoming increasingly misogynist. These two facts: that of the
real empowerment of women and that of an increase in sexism are logically
connected and also successfully correlated with the examined phenomenon -
the participation of women in the 1996/97 protests. The way out of the
obvious division of patriarchy can only be sought in a new 'gender
contract' - the kind of contract that would balance the position of men and
women in private and public spheres, both in concrete daily life and the
symbolic sphere.
In the second part of the book, Bora Kuzmanovic offered some overview of
participants' value orientations and their political attitudes. His survey
showed that the largest number of participants accept democratic changes,
prefer individual freedoms to equality and overwhelmingly reject extreme
egalitarianism. Further more, they display low authoritarianism and lack of
inclination toward conformist behavior. The students demonstrated high
degree of openness to the world, but many of them simultaneously attached
importance to their national identity. In most cases this identity did not
imply national exclusiveness, but rather a kind of national self awareness.
Dragan Popadic offered comparative analyses of 1992 and 1996/97 protests.
The two student protests seam highly similar, compared at the subsequent
event, largely beyond the influence of the students that will determine
whether the future will consider them winners or losers. As valuable
three-month 'school of democracy', the protest of 1996/97 formed their own
identity and established links between themselves and with the
world. Andjelka Milic, Ljiljana Cickaric and Mihajlo Jojic made a complex
analysis of socio-demographic characteristics of young generations and
their families. They reflected the student protest using the concepts of
'political generation' and from the perspective of 'generation mission'.
The second important theme of their survey includes the relationship of the
students toward their own engagement in the protest through their
identification with the specific element and contents. The authors
concluded that the student protest provided irrefutable evidence of the
constitution and evidence of political generation of the youth but the
'mission' this generation is taking upon itself is not the work of the
whole generation, but rather of the parts thereof which, in the process of
political socialization within their families, acquired the readiness, need
and consciousness for social and political engagement.
The third part offered an analysis of protest as an urban phenomenon.
'Belgrade is the world!' was a slogan of the 1996/97 protests. In his
sociological presentations Sreten Vujovic deals with the urban character of
the civil and the student protests. His attention is focused on Belgrade as
the brain and heart of the country (Serbia). Civic disobedience, which has
been manifested in Belgrade and other large towns in Serbia, was a public,
nonviolent conscious political act. In contrast with 'the happening of the
people' characteristic of the populist movement of the late 1980s in
Serbia, this time it was a 'happening of the citizenry'. Vujovic uses
'moveable feast' as metaphor for Belgrade protest for a walking theater in
the round. As a public place par excellence squares and streets in Belgrade
became a synonymous of a carnival, spectacle, festivity, play, laughter and
noise. The symbolism if the public movement may also be interpreted as a
spectacle, a magnificent showy resplendent scene in a public place, aiming
to attract as many people as possible. It is analyzed as complex phenomenon
which is both art and entertainment, a place where these are performed, the
audience and the social act of attending the performance.
The book 'Protest in Belgrade' is also provided with an appendix - the full
chronology of the protest including systematically collected evidence of
the stormy events in Serbia in the winter of 1996/97. One will find also a
sample design and the questionnaire.
This book recommends itself by the topicality of the examined issues,
including the knowledge of the problems research and documented by the
interesting data. An obligation of sociologists to follow the structural
changes in society is applied in a proper way. The publishing of the book
'Protest in Belgrade' became a real sociological event. Written without the
historical distance this book represents a piece of scientific evidence of
important social destiny of the collective movement and an unique
experience of hundreds of thousands of individuals. This study applied
solid reflection and adequate theoretical approach to the understanding and
interpreting of authentic and provocative empirical results.
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Book available at: www.ceupress.com
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