The politicization of ethnicity as a prelude to ethnopolitical conflict: Croatia and Serbia in former Yugoslavia

This interdisciplinary research develops a framework or a model for the study of the politicization of ethnicity, a process that transforms peaceful ethnic conflict into violent inter-ethnic conflict. The hypothesis investigated in this study is that the ethnopolitical conflict that led to the break up of former Yugoslavia was the result of deliberate politicization of ethnicity. The model consists of three variables---ethnic entrepreneurs as actors, and mass media and political rhetoric as their tools for politicization of ethnicity. Ethnic entrepreneurs, with a conscious interest in mobilizing ethnicity, are given this opportunity in transitional societies in which politicized ethnicity has become the crucial principle of political legitimation. Specifically, this study seeks to explain how political leaders may turn into ethnic entrepreneurs and then draw upon existing non-violent ethnic tensions and conflict (a phenomenon existing in every multiethnic society) to generate ethnopolitical conflict. The propositions of the model will be tested through a case study of Yugoslavia, specifically, a comparative study of the Yugoslav subunits Croatia and Serbia.; This research argues that it is necessary to conduct independent analyses of ethnic and political aspects of violent inter-ethnic conflicts. Only in recognizing the contexts in which ethnicity can be politicized and the mechanisms by which ethnicity is politicized, can we recognize the true nature of the violent inter-ethnic conflict and then develop strategies for the prevention of such conflicts.