Ethos, culture and reform pattersn: some British‐Yugoslav comparison

Abstract

This article analyses value preferences and basic cultural behavioural patterns in two fairly diverse countries/societies: Britain and Yugoslavia. It is, from the very outset, assumed that both countries are undergoing a period of significant social changes, both political and social. The UK is introducing the policy of devolution with significant constitutional changes pending, while the Yugoslav society is recovering from the conflict in the area, economic slowdowns and is searching for its new identity. Due to long‐standing British interests in the Balkans, the attractiveness of a virtually unpenetrated Yugoslav market and the vast opportunities for investment pending the solution of political crises in the Balkans, it is expected that British investors, companies and entrepreneurs will be interested in establishing business links in Yugoslavia, and therefore it is more than useful to analyse basic cultural patterns of both societies, expressed through public opinion polls and informal exchange of opinions (used only in anecdotal manner). It is concluded that although both societies are shaped in the dominant European manner, there are also many differences between them, but none of them so significant as to pose an obstacle to a successful business co‐operation.