Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Nation-Building, Ethnic Boundary Making, And Situational Nationalism: Why Did Montenegro Become More Divided And Less 'Montenegrin'?, Muhammed F. Erdem

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Once ethnically the most homogeneous among the South Slavs, Montenegro is now deeply divided between two factions over statehood and identity. Notwithstanding the expansion of national institutions and elite efforts to mobilize upon them, with independence in 2006 has come less unity, internal harmony, and loyalty to the state, and intensified division and contention. Accompanying the lack of political integration that reaches across ethnic divides has been the further erosion in the popular support for the Montenegrin identity.

This study explores why and how the nation-building efforts of Montenegrin ethnopolitical entrepreneurs, rather than fostering national cohesion, political integration, and titular …

The Role Of Elites In The Formation Of National Identities: The Case Of Montenegro, Muhammed F. Erdem

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to answer two interlinked central questions with respect to Montenegrins’ divide over statehood and identity: Why and how Montenegrins, whom were once called ‘the purest and the best of Serbs’, sought to end their century-long common state experience with Serbia and instead establish their own nation-state in 2006, and what explains the rise of Montenegrin national identity and its transformation into nationalism? In attempting to answer these questions, it traces the historical development of Montenegrin national thought dating back to the early 20^th century when Montenegro was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. …