The Politics of Peasantism PDF Download

Author: Mark Biondich
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Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The thesis explores the relationship between nationalism and agrarianism. In Croatia the process of national integration began in the 19th century, but it was only completed in the 1920s under the aegis of the Croat Peasant Party (HSS) of Stjepan Radic ́. Consequently, the central focus of the work is the agrarian and national ideology of the HSS. In Croatia, as in most other parts of East Central Europe, the intelligentsia held a central place in the national movement. This was primarily a reflection of the slow rate of socio-economic modernization in the region, and the absence of a large native bourgeoisie or proletariat. However, the Croatian intelligentsia was gradually coopted. It found employment in the bureaucracy of the Croatian state established by the terms of the Croato-Hungarian Nagodba (Agreement, 1868). After 1868 the peasantry tended to identify the intelligentsia, that is, the educated Elite, with the city and bureaucracy and all that they represented, i.e. exploitation of the peasant. By the turn of the century Croatian society, like most other predominantly agrarian societies, was permeated by an immense social and cultural divide between the intelligentsia (the city) and the peasantry (the village). This was a major obstacle to the completion of the process of national integration. The thesis explores the ideology of the HSS from the perspective of national integration. In order to overcome the urban-rural divide in Croatia, the HSS articulated two key concepts: peasant state and peasant right. Peasant right encapsulated the party's agrarian ideology. It legitimized the peasantry's right to a leading role in society and was simultaneously the socioeconomic and political programme of the HSS. Peasant state, on the other hand, was the goal of the HSS and at the same time an important mobilizational instrument to win the peasants over to the Croat national movement. Based on these two concepts, by 1928 the Croat Peasant Party stood in the vanguard of a national movement uniting peasants and intellectuals.