yugoslavias implosion

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ChApter 1
themselves “Yugoslavs” increased from 1.3 percent in 1971 to 5.4 percent
in 1981. “Yugoslavs” were most numerous in Croatia (where
many Serbs declared themselves as such), Bosnia (where “Yugoslavs”
included offspring of mixed marriages as well as members of
all three peoples but mostly Muslims), and Vojvodina (where most
self-described “Yugoslavs” were members of minority groups).
While the issue of a joint state was being considered, Serbia’s
insistence on constitutional amendments, reflecting a desire to reestablish
Yugoslavia as a centralist federation, prompted a debate on
educational curricula. While Serbia strove toward greater uniformity
in education, Slovenia argued that each republic should tailor the
curricula to suit its specific national culture. In the 1980s, the starting
point in the development of basic common curricula was the
idea of an integral system of education on a Marxist basis. Uniformity
would be achieved through a set of basic common curricula in all
subjects throughout Yugoslavia, the content of each subject selected
according to the percentage of each nation (e.g., 50 percent relevant
to the Serbs and 7 percent each to the Slovenes and the Albanians).
The hope was to thus solve the problem of the Serbian minority in
Kosovo because the 1974 Constitution had granted the republics and
provinces full jurisdiction in the sphere of education. Other organizational
criteria were those promoting brotherhood and unity,
Marxist training, and the traditions of the national liberation struggle
and the Socialist revolution in Yugoslavia.
The quest for a solution to the Yugoslav issue presupposed a
“strong Yugoslav state,” and the revived debate on the prospects for
creating a Yugoslav nation failed to win much support because the
other Yugoslav peoples were apprehensive of a resurgence of Serbian
hegemony. A segment of the Serbian elite believed that Yugoslavia
could survive only by constituting a single Yugoslav nation on
the model of the United States. Mihajlo Marković believed that the
“Serbs have accepted such an option” and that the “state nationality”