Reconfiguring the Polis, Reconceptualizing Rights: Individual Rights and the Irony of History in Central and Southeastern Europe

Abstract

In communist systems, underground parallel society and underground counterculture functioned as an arena of genuine democratic action, in which citizens played an active role in the production of narratives, activities, and services which rivalled the official narratives, activities, and services generated by the regime. With the collapse of communism, the raison d'être for this ‘Polis' has disappeared and, to a large extent, independent activism has become the domain of NGOs specializing in human rights, while citizens participate in politics primarily by voting in elections. Controversies continue, however, and this article focuses on region-wide controversies about the media, ethnicity, and religion, taking note also of the depoliticization of culture.

Key Words:

• Post-communist states
• individual and group rights
• the independent polis
• the media and post-communist politics
• ethnic fragmentation
• the former Yugoslavia
• religion and post-communist politics
• cultural politics

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Karl Kaser, Robert J. Bideleux, and Christine M. Hassenstab for comments on earlier versions of this article.