From ‘Organic’ Legislators to ‘Organicistic’ Interpreters: Intellectuals in Yugoslavia and Post‐Yugoslav States

Abstract

The article is divided into three parts. In the first part I review and compare the two leading sociological theories on intellectuals, those of Z. Bauman and A. Gramsci whose concepts are later critically examined to form the basis of my argument. The second part of the article draws on Gramsci's typology of organic and traditional intelligentsia and Bauman's distinction between interpreters and legislators in order to identify and assess the profile of the Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav intelligentsia. Here I argue that Yugoslavia lacked the category of traditional intellectuals (be they legislators or interpreters) and that the dominant type of Yugoslav intellectual was an ‘organic’ legislator. As a result, the post-Yugoslav states are also characterized by the lack of a traditional intelligentsia and thus in the early post-communist period only the former organic legislators have become ‘organicistic’ interpreters. The final part of the paper summarizes the findings and looks at their implications relating to Bauman's and Gramsci's concepts.