This volume offers a profound analysis of post-socialist economic and political transformation in the Balkans, involving deeply unequal societies and oligarchical "democracies." The contributions deconstruct the persistent imaginary of the Balkans, pervasive among outsiders to the region, who see it as no more than a repository of ethnic conflict, corruption and violence. Providing a much needed critical examination of the Yugoslav socialist experience, the volume sheds light on the recent rebirth of radical politics in the Balkans, where new groups and movements struggle for a radically democratic vision of society.
Srecko Horvat is a philosopher from Croatia. Together with Slavoj Žižek, he is the author of What Does Europe Want? The Union and its Discontent (Istors Books, 2013). Igor Štiks is a senior research fellow at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of two novels, A Castle in Romagna and Elijah's Chair, which have won numerous awards and have been translated into a dozen European languages.