A Theory about the Causes of the Yugoslav Meltdown: The Serbian National Awakening as a "Revitalization Movement."

This article focuses on the revitalization movement of Yugoslavia. The argument to be presented here is that the Yugoslav meltdown involved three factors or sets of factors: first, the various underlying problems such as economic deterioration, political illegitimacy, and structural factors which drove the system toward crisis; second, the presence and persistence of inter-ethnic resentments deriving from irreconcilable national historical narratives in which Yugoslavia's constituent peoples cast each other as "the Enemy" (usually across the Serb-non- Serb cleavage) and specifically stoked by certain ambitious political figures.