Ethno-Territorial Identities and the Making of Regional Party Arrangement: The Case of Voivodina. An Introductory Analysis

In the course of 1990’s Voivodina was offering really fascinating picture of a country in motion. However, it would be a mistake to reduce Voivodinian party politics to a regional sector of its Serbian counterpart and place it within the context of Serbian “failed transition” to democracy (cf. Miller 1997). The point was not a transition to democracy only; it concerned a whole set of processes involving new power, cultural, and territorial boundary-building which must be looked at in a very broad sense. For instance, in 1988 the so-called counter-bureaucratic revolution, a part of these processes, meant a virtual elimination, or devaluation of Voivodinian institutional autonomy and degradation of the region to a peripheral province of Serbia. The processes also included obvious changes in the ethnic composition of Voivodinian population which resulted in imminent political and electoral consequences. During this decade the changing multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-denominational environment of Voivodina was offering a very peculiar background for a genesis of political plurality and respective party politics.In the course of 1990’s Voivodina was offering really fascinating picture of a country in motion. However, it would be a mistake to reduce Voivodinian party politics to a regional sector of its Serbian counterpart and place it within the context of Serbian “failed transition” to democracy (cf. Miller 1997). The point was not a transition to democracy only; it concerned a whole set of processes involving new power, cultural, and territorial boundary-building which must be looked at in a very broad sense. For instance, in 1988 the so-called counter-bureaucratic revolution, a part of these processes, meant a virtual elimination, or devaluation of Voivodinian institutional autonomy and degradation of the region to a peripheral province of Serbia. The processes also included obvious changes in the ethnic composition of Voivodinian population which resulted in imminent political and electoral consequences. During this decade the changing multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-denominational environment of Voivodina was offering a very peculiar background for a genesis of political plurality and respective party politics