DEPRET · From Demos to Ethnos: Popular Revolt and Elite Transformation in Montenegro's Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution (1988–1990)

From Demos to Ethnos: Popular Revolt and Elite Transformation in Montenegro's Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution (1988–1990)

The project "From Demos to Ethnos: Popular Revolt and Elite Transformation in Montenegro’s Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution (1988–1990)" – acronym: DEPRET – examined the interaction between popular revolt and elite transformation before, during, and after the wave of mass protests in Montenegro that brought new elites to power in 1989. By analyzing the so-called Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution (ABR) as both a short-term event and a long-term process, the project focused on understanding the complex interplay of socio-political crisis, civil society, social movements, contentious politics, civic activism, postsocialist transformation, nation-building, far-right populism, (ethno)nationalism, conspiracy theories, and political polarization. The project, therefore, provided answers to the questions of how and why a once inclusive and tolerant society (socialist "demos") transformed into one based on a more exclusive and militant ethnic identity (nationalist "ethnos"). It placed emphasis on the development and dissemination of nationalist and populist ideas among elites and the general population, aiming to understand why and how these ideas were accepted and resisted by citizens. Moreover, it used the Montenegrin experience as a "context of discovery" to theorize empirical observations regarding the processes, practices, and relations that shaped (the development of) its civil society and contentious politics during the postsocialist transformation. The project’s overall aim was to understand why and how civil society turns "uncivil". Its three specific objectives were: (1) to improve understanding of elite transformation through a critical interpretation of the elite's public discourse, with a particular focus on how they articulated, framed, and legitimized themselves and "the people" in the context of what they saw as the "necessary changes of the system"; (2) to identify, map, and analyze repertoires of contention and tactics of resistance used by protesting citizens in advancing or resisting populism, ethnonationalism, and right-wing radicalism, with a particular focus on demands/grievances, frames, and justifications they used to reconstitute themselves from a socialist "demos" into a nationalist "ethnos" or, conversely, to oppose this process; and (3) to contribute to theory development in order to understand to what extent the relationship between grassroots and elite expressions of right-wing populism – and the mechanisms of their emergence, growth, and spread – is a two-way process of elite–mass interaction during turbulent times.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз