Beauty is in the eye of the beholder?

There is strong pressure for individuals to become beautiful and to find a beautiful mate. Every day, people spend time and money to become beautiful. We may not be aware of it but we are likely to have experienced or witnessed how people use time and seem to have insufficient time in making themselves beautiful. Teenage siblings race to use the bathroom first because a sibling takes an hour or more to prepare for school.A range of beauty products clutter the bathroom cabinet or dresser with products used for different parts of the body or for various purposes and applied during the day and at night.Couples pressure each other to hurry up so they would beat rush hour traffic and not be late for work. People put on make-up, shave or brush their teeth while racing in the motorway. Cosmetic surgery has become popular. These are just examples of how people invest time and money to meet the pressure of becoming beautiful. Beauty is also strong consideration in looking for a partner or sel ecting a mate. Physical beauty is the initial determinant of attraction, which determines an individual’s interest in another person. While perceptions of beauty depend on personal taste, social influences can sway choices and outcomes.Even if a person finds someone attractive, if their friends or peers disagree then chances are they will not end up with that person. Acceptance of a partner by their peers is important to individuals. An interesting question is how far individuals consider social influences in selecting their partners and how well social influences on beauty standards in partner selection guarantee a good relationship. External Influences on Individual Perceptions of Beauty Perceptions of beauty that individuals use in finding and selecting a partner depend on external influences.These external influences not only affect ideas of a beautiful partner but also determine how well individuals meet the acceptable standards of a beautiful partner. The media as deter minant of standards of beauty. The media is a social institution that creates ideas of beauty and influences individual self-perception (Engeln-Maddox & Miller, 2008). The media is the biggest source of ideas of beauty expressed through different venues such as print magazines, television commercials or shows, and online programs. Mass accessibility led to the exposure and consumption of media by many people.Media also provides ideas of body image as a standard of beauty (Gallagher & Pecot-Hebert, 2007). Media changes the perception of individuals about themselves to make people desire the ideal standards of appearance and beauty. A study on the impact of media towards focus on appearance and beauty of African American girls showed that the portrayal of women as sex objects led to the greater consciousness and focus on personal appearance (Gordon, 2008). African American girls exposed to media portraying Black women as sex objects and who identified themselves with the characters in the media developed greater focus on their appearance.Media also affects individual ideas of beauty by causing individuals to make self-evaluations of their attractiveness. A research on the link between media, body evaluation and perceptions of attractiveness of college men and women showed that those who had positive evaluations of their bodies relative to media ideals perceived themselves as attractive while those who negatively evaluated their bodies reported negative effects on their self-esteem (Tyler, Lopez & Flores, 2009).The impact of media on individual ideas of beauty depends on internalization of ideal beauty and dissatisfaction with one’s body or looks. Internalization of ideal beauty means its acceptance and pursuit of this beauty standard (Dittmar, Halliwell & Stirling, 2009). The internationalization of thin models as ideal beauty influences decisions to undergo a physical makeover that could include cosmetic surgery (Heyes, 2007). Dissatisfaction with oneâ⠂¬â„¢s physical appearance also reinforces the impact of the ideal beauty on body image and self-perception (Engeln-Maddox, 2006).Culture as determinant of standards of beauty. People pursue standards of beauty prevailing in the culture to which they closely associate (Englis, Solomon & Ashmore, 1994). Having large eyes, breasts or hips depends on the beliefs of what constitutes beauty in women. In Africa, having large hips is beautiful because it represents fertility. In Latin America, women with large hips are beautiful with beauty showcased in dances. Changes in the beauty norms also cause shifts in individual ideas of beauty.Standards of beauty within a cultural context are exemplified by patterns of consumption (Bloch & Richins, 1993). Different types of cosmetics, hair products, and beauty enhancement procedures are popular beauty commodities in different cultures. Innovations in product development, technological tools, and marketing strategies for these products are a contin uous activity to create and meet demand. Peers as determinants of standards of beauty. Peers are agents of socialization (Campbell, 1980). Individuals learn about what constitutes beauty from peers.Individual attitudes and behaviors towards beauty is a reflection of collective ideas of beauty. The extent of association or identification with a peer group leads to a stronger influence on beauty standards (Campbell, 1980). A study on changing racial stereotypes through peer groups showed that exposure to positive stereotypes about African Americans led to the development of positive stereotyping by the group and its individual members (Tan et al. , 2001). People consider and adjust to the attitudes and beliefs of their peer groups on a number of issues including ideal beauty.Peers also influence perceptions of attractiveness of a potential mate. A study of social influences on interpersonal interaction showed that women were influenced by perceptions of their peers over the physical a ttractiveness of men as shown by personal ratings that considered initial feedback from other women (Graziano et al. , 1993). Peer Pressure and Fear of Judgment as Drivers of Likes and Dislikes Peer groups affect individual likes and dislikes by influencing attitudes, beliefs and behaviors toward beauty and related aspects.Peer pressure and fear of judgment are determinants of individual likes and dislikes. Peer pressure. Individuals are susceptible to persuasion in making decisions and doing actions depending on collective attitudes and behavior of peers (Griskevicius, Cialdini & Goldstein, 2008). If most or all peers adopt a similar attitude and behave similarly towards something, the extent of persuasive influence of peers is higher. Peer pressure refers to the psychological strain experienced by individuals when comparing themselves with their peers (Daido, 2006).If there is a significant gap, then a person feels greater pressure to consider and adopt the common beliefs and prac tices of the peer group. Fear of judgment. Fear is an emotional state that has a direct relationship with threat avoidance (Maner & Gerend, 2007). In peer groups, fear could emerge in the form of apprehensions over judgments from peers that affect acceptability and support from the group as well as anticipation of conflict with the group. The fear drives individuals to avoid the cause of the fear.A way of avoiding the outcomes feared is to comply with group peer beliefs and activities. Physical and Inner Beauty Beauty could be visible or non-visible or both (Fatovic-Ferencic, Durrigl & Holubar, 2003) Visible beauty is physical and observable by sight. Non-visible beauty refers to characteristics or values that may not be viewable but observable through personality, attitudes, decisions and behaviors. Physical beauty and inner beauty are interrelated but one component could dominate the other. A person may be beautiful on the outside but not beautiful on the inside.While the common p erception of beauty is as physical attribute, beauty comprises the balance between the physical and non-physical components. Informed judgments. With beauty having physical and non-physical components, making judgments requires knowing someone first. A study on the length of acquaintance with consensus over personality judgments showed that the longer one knows and interacts with a person, the more accurate the personal judgment is with the consensus over the personality judgment (Biesanz, West & Millevoi, 2007).Time is a factor in knowing a person. Judgments on beauty, covering both physical and inner beauty, require time to know a person. Physical beauty can be judged immediately based on first impression but judgments on overall beauty require knowing the individual first. Cognitive autonomy. Decision-making on life-changing personal matters such as having a relationship or selecting a partner are done individually. Although, external influences are important, people should learn to balance autonomous thinking with social influences.Cognitive autonomy is an important quality especially for young people and adults who face difficult life choices. This concept refer to the ability to evaluate ideas, express opinions, make decisions, use comparative assessments, and do self-evaluations (Beckert, 2007). Developing cognitive autonomy enables individuals to balance personal preferences with external influences. Self-efficacy. Individuals have varying needs and objectives. Although external feedback can help individuals, developing self-efficacy is important for individuals to make a plan and act to achieve their own goals.Individuals have a close understanding of what they want to achieve and self-efficacy is the factor that mediates planning and goal fulfillment (Lippke et al. , 2009). Other people may not have the same extent of understanding of the person’s goals and plans. The plan to enter into a relationship is achievable through self-efficacy. The C urrent Study The study will investigate the concept of beauty, including the distinction of inner and outer beauty, based on the perspectives of a representative sample of senior students at the university.Views and experiences of the pressures of being beautiful and finding the perfect partner based on standards of beauty will also be gathered. The study will then determine the extent that individuals weigh personal taste and social ideals of beauty, particularly peer influences, in finding the perfect partner and the extent that the balance contributes to the success in finding the perfect mate. Hypotheses 1. University students achieve greater balance between personal taste and social ideals of beauty in finding a life partner when beauty is considered as having inner and outer components.2. A balance between personal taste and social ideals of beauty contributes to the greater success in finding a partner. Method Participants The participants will be 60 randomly selected senior students at the university, evenly distributed between males and females. Senior students are those currently enrolled and expected to graduate after completing the current semester and one more semester. Senior university students will be selected as participants because they are likely to encounter the issue of finding a perfect partner as they near graduation and while establishing their careers.Having males and females as participants would determine any differences between perceptions of beauty, pressure of achieving beauty, and selection of the perfect life partner based on beauty. The participants have to bring with them two of their closest peers to provide an assessment of the physical attributes and perceived personality typology of partner choices. The selection of the respondents will be made by coordinating with the school registry to identify senior university students. Of the list obtained, 30 males and 30 females will be randomly selected.They will be contacted to se ek their permission and schedule a session together with two of their closest friends to participate in the quasi-experiment and answer the questionnaire. Those selected who refused to participate will be replaced by randomly selecting from the list until 60 respondents are completed. Materials The data collection instrument is a structured questionnaire with closed questions requiring the selection of a range of answers including yes/no, ranking a list of items, selecting a single answer from a given list, and rating based on extent of agreement or disagreement.The questions or statements cover the four topics on concept of beauty, pressures of being beautiful, finding a lifetime partner based on personal and/or peer ideas of beauty, and extent that personal and/or peer ideals of beauty contribute to the success in finding the perfect partner. Procedure The quasi-experiment will start with the selected participants going over pictures with basic information and personality descript ions of thirty men for women participants and thirty women for male participants. The graduation pictures of individuals wearing togas will be taken from yearbooks to control other visual factors such as clothing.The pictures will be selected to consider diverse physical and personality attributes based on the yearbook descriptions. The respondents will be asked to select one person from the set of pictures as a potential partner. They will rate the physical attributes and perceived personality traits of the person in the picture. Their friends will view the pictures, select one picture they think is the perfect partner for their friend, and rate the physical features and perceived personality type. The participant will be shown the choice of their peers and explanations for the choice.The participants are given the chance to decide whether to retain their choice or select the choice of their peers. Regardless of their choice, the participants will be asked to answer the questionnai re. The responses will be analyzed using descriptive statistics to summarize responses, t-test to determine differences in responses as influenced by gender, and correlation to determine the relationship between variables. References Beckert, T. (2007). Cognitive autonomy and self-evaluation in adolescence: A conceptual investigation and instrument. North American Journal of Psychology, 9(3), 579-594.Biesanz, J. , West, S. , & Millevoi, A. (2007). What do you learn about someone over time? The relationship between length of acquaintance and consensus and self–other agreement in judgments of personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(1), 119-135. Bloch, P. , & Richins, M. (1993). Attractiveness, adornments, and exchange. Psychology & Marketing, 19(6), 467-470. Campbell, B. (1980). A theoretical approach to peer influence in adolescent socialization. American Journal of Political Science, 24(2), 324-344. Dittman, H. , Halliwell, E. , & Stirling, E.(2009). Und erstanding the impact of thin media models on women’s body-focused affect: The roles of thin-ideal internalization and weight-related self-discrepancy activation in experimental exposure effects. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 28(1), 43-72. Engeln-Maddox, R. (2006). Buying a beauty standard or dreaming of a new life? Expectations associated with media ideals. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30(1), 258-266. Engeln-Maddox, R. (2008). Talking back to the media ideal: The development and validation of the critical processing of beauty images scale.Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32(1), 159-171. Englis, B. , Solomon, M. , & Ashmore, R. (1994). Beauty before the eyes of beholders: The cultural encoding of beauty types in magazine advertising and music television. Journal of Advertising, 23(2), 46-94. Fatovic-Ferencic, S. , Durrigl, M. , & Holubar, K. (2003). Beauty: Soul or surface?. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 2(2), 82-85. Gallagher, A. , & Pecot-Hebert, L. (2007). â€Å"You need a makeover! †: The social construction of female body image in A Makeover Story, What Not to Wear, and Extreme Makeover.Popular Communication, 5(1), 57-79. Gordon, M. (2008). Media contributions to African American girls’ focus on beauty and appearance: Exploring the consequences of sexual objectification. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32(1), 245-256. Graziano, W. , Jensen, Campbell, L. , Shebilske, L. , & Lundgren, S. (1993). Social influence, sex differences, and judgments of beauty: Putting the interpersonal back in interpersonal attraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(3), 522-531. Griskevicius, V. , Cialdini, R. , & Goldstein, N. (2008).Applying (and resisting) peer influence. MIT Sloan Management Review, 49(2), 84-88. Heyes, C. (2007). Cosmetic surgery and the televisual makeover: A Foucauldian feminist reading. Feminist Media Studies, 7(1), 17-32. Lippke, S. , Wiedmann, A. , Ziegelmann, J. , Reuter, T. , & Schwarzer, R. (2009) . Self-efficacy moderates the mediation of intentions into behavior via plans. American Journal of Health Behavior, 33(5), 521-529. Maner, J. , & Gerend, M. (2007). Motivationally selective risk judgments: Do fear and curiosity boost the boons or the banes?.Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes, 103(2), 256-267. Tan, A. , Tan, G. , Avdeyeva, T. , Crandall, H. , Fukushi, Y. , Nyandwi, A. , Chin, H. , Wu, C. , & Fujioka, Y. (2001). Changing negative racial stereotypes: The influence of normative peer information. The Howard Journal of Communications, 12(3), 171-180. Tyler, K. , Lopez, S. , & Flores, L. (2009). The media, body evaluation, and perceptions of physical attractiveness among college-aged women and men. Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research, 14(1), 25-33.

Ethnic Intolerance Essay

The Yugoslavia collapse was a homemade tragedy. In sharp contrast to most of Balkan history, outside powers did not play a major role in stimulating Yugoslav division. Societies in which human development needs are threatened are ripe for conflict. In Yugoslavia ethnic groups misunderstood each others needs and desires. Political elites deliberately perpetuated and exploited conflicts between the general populace. The hypothesis of the essay is that the main propellant behind war in Yugoslavia was not ancient history and ancient hatreds but recent hatreds manipulated by elites. As it the case in all ethnic crises, it is possible to identify a wide rage of questions that have arisen during the course of Yugoslavia crises. In my opinion, there are some points of particular importance, where my paper will be based on. These are: (1) why has the ethnic hatred exploded now, after half a century of peaceful intermingling? (2) Are the roots and causes of the ethnic war ancient or recent? (3) Do politicians create nationalism, or does existing nationalism shape the political power struggle? I will handle the subject in four parts- `Socialist development and Yugoslavism`, ‘Post- Tito debate`, ‘New elites, old leaders’ policy (post-federalism)’, and ‘The slide toward disintegration’. Socialist development and Yugoslavism The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (the SFRY) was born â€Å"Phoenix-like, †¦ rising from the ashes† (Judah 2000, p. 136) of the World War II to live under the iron presidency of a Communist Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980). Whatever controversial Tito’s political reputation is, researchers acknowledged that he was the only leader whose â€Å"wartime record, †¦ undeniable charisma and †¦ ability to stand up to the Soviets in 1948 to assert Yugoslav independence allowed †¦ for several decades to maintain at least an illusion of the country’s unity† (Kozhemiakin 1998, p. 73). Williams (1998, p. 48) insisted that the head of the re-born country, Josip Tito, â€Å"deliberately aimed to create an entirely different sort of state† in 1945, and one of the most significant differences was â€Å"the equal treatment of the various groups in the population and a down-playing of the nationalities issue† (Williams 1998, p. 48). According to Judah (2000), the chronology of an ethnic question in the Yugoslavia under Tito consists of three phases: 1945-66, 1966-74, and 1974-80. During the first period, the Communist leaders were rather successful in keeping the lid on the boiling pot of nationalism. The new Yugoslav federalism was created after the USSR model with its autonomous unites within the single state framework. Under the 1946 Constitution the SFRY consisted of six republics (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia–Hercegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Slovenia) and two autonomous regions (the multi-national Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the predominantly Shipetar, or Albanian Autonomous District of Kosovo-Metohija [KOSMET] within Serbia). Conversely, the Yugoslavia national identity consisted of six ‘nations,’ or â€Å"officially recognized groups with national homes in one of the federal republics† (Hudson 2003, p. 50): Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Muslims (those slavs who converted to Islam under Ottoman rule); eight ‘nationalities,’ or â€Å"officially recognized groups† who â€Å"had an internationally recognized national homeland outside Yugoslavia† (Hudson 2003, p. 50): Albanians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Italians, Romanians, Slovaks and Turks; two ‘nationalities’ – Roma and Ruthenians – who â€Å"did not have a national homeland outside Yugoslavia† (Hudson 2003, p. 50); and others (Austrians, Greeks, Jews, Germans, Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Vlachs, etc.). It seems that the republican and district borders were established holding ethnic, historic and economic factors in view. Tito himself underlined that the aim of republican and district borders was not †¦ drawing a boundary line between this federal unit and the other, and now you on the other side shall do as you please, and I shall do as I please on my side of the boundary. No! These boundaries, figuratively speaking, should resemble the white lines on a marble column. The boundaries of the federated units within the federal state of Yugoslavia do not denote separatism but unity. (as cited in Judah 2000, p. 140) As Judah (2000, p. 137) noted, â€Å"Bosnia was restored, with its historic 1878 frontiers, in recognition of its mixed population and to prevent it becoming the renewed object of dispute between Serbs and Croats.† The Slavs of the Macedonian region were acknowledged to be neither Serbs nor Bulgarians, but a distinctive group, therefore the Macedonian republic was created to eliminate the possible â€Å"bone of contention† (Frankel 1955, p. 416) between Serbia and Bulgaria. Montenegro acquired a republican status â€Å"in recognition of its historic status and so partly to satisfy that portion of the population which resented being relegated to the position of a far-flung province of Serbia† (Judah 2000, p. 138). The large groups of the Albanians in Kosovo and the Hungarians in Vojvodina received ‘nationalities’ status because they had homelands outside Yugoslavia. The re-born Yugoslavia has never ceased to be a shelf stuffed with ‘skeletons’ of reciprocal convictions between different ethnic populations. However, until the mid-1960s people’s minds were occupied rather with the agrarian reform, Tito’s split with Stalin, and the economic innovation of self-management. A two-chamber legislature, the Federal People’s Assembly, consisted of a directly-elected Federal Council and a Council of Nationalities, comprising delegates from the assemblies of the republics (25 representatives of each Republic, 15 of the Autonomous Province, and 10 of the Autonomous District). The Federal People’s Assembly elected the Praesidium and the Executive Council. Tito has been occupying the seat of the Executive Council’s chairman for thirty-five years, and simultaneously he was the head of the Communist party. The 1946 SFRY Constitution granted equal power to both cameras of Federal People’s Assembly, and was said to rely on â€Å"the principles of equality and voluntariness† (Frankel 1955, p. 422): The Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia is a federal people’s State of republican form, a community of peoples equal in rights who, basing themselves on the right to self-determination, which includes the right to separation, have expressed a will to live together in a federal State. At the initial stage of the Yugoslav consolidation under the Communist dictatorship, the group in power was likely to understand that the state â€Å"should not rest on coercion, brute force, or realpolitik†: [The Communists] sought [legitimacy] in an explanatory creation myth: the new Yugoslav state had come into being as a result of â€Å"two kinds of solidarity, that of the Yugoslav nations who had united to fight the enemy, and that of the Partisan veterans, the stari borci, who had done the actual fighting.† (Bokovoy 1998, p. 36) The new Yugoslav leaders relied heavily on the concept of ‘bratsvo i jedinstvo’ (â€Å"brotherhood and unity†). It declared â€Å"that Yugoslavia would be strong, not because its peoples were one, but because they were many, and that strength was born of unity† (Judah 2000, p. 136). However, the concept of unity was treated in a rather original way. Lake and Rothchild (p. 105) paraphrased Djilas (1995) who stated that â€Å"the communist party served as the primary safeguard [to the treat of nationalism] in Yugoslavia, largely through coercion and repression.† A critical eye should not be blinded by the phrase about possible separation of any federal units. Elazar (1991, p. 176) stated that â€Å"the constitutional process in Yugoslavia is very centralized indeed.† As Burg (1982, p. 131) observed: The federal system was originally adopted by [the Yugoslav] leadership in order to accommodate the frustrated national aspirations of the Yugoslav peoples and thereby to mobilize national sentiment in support of the establishment of a socialist order. But commitment to a Stalinist model of development, and ideological conviction that that development would reduce and eventually eliminate the political salience of nationality, led the postwar Communist leadership to subordinate the constituent republics to a powerful federal center and to resist meaningful concessions to their national distinctiveness. (Burg 1982, p. 131) Tito and the Communists re-arranged the ethnic map of the country according to their ideological concerns. Soon after the end of WWII the Yugoslav government began to organize peasantry into cooperatives. The region of Vojvodina became the first experimental ground for collectivization. The leadership moved almost 300,000 Serbs from Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Hercegovina to Vojvodina to prove the effectiveness of a socialist agrarian experiment â€Å"with the hope of cultivating a Yugoslav identity† (Bokovoy 1998, p. 49). However, in the 1960s, the Yugoslav leadership was split by arguments about â€Å"the question of decentralisation, the introduction of certain market mechanisms and the related issue of increasing republican autonomy† (Judah 2000, p. 144). Hot arguments between elites triggered a tide of reciprocal convictions between the Croats and the Serbs. The Serbs were accused of the attempts to â€Å"Serbianize Croatia,† as Petar Segedin, the president of the Croatian Literary Society, has put it (Judah 2000, p. 146). Bosnia was covertly inflamed by statistics produced by Matica Hrvatska, a Croatian intellectual organisation, to prove the jeopardy of pan-Serbianism. Serbian intellectuals reacted accordingly. The Bosnians and the Serbian Kosovars wanted to get rid of the Albanians, who in turn went into streets demanding a republican status for the province and the establishment of an Albanian-language university in 1968. Despite the evident shift towards liberalism and decentralisation provided by the 1967 and 1971 amendments, there was an â€Å"upsurge of nationalism† that â€Å"met a harsh response† (Hudson 2003, p. 52) from the Yugoslav President. Tito was a proponent of ‘ethnic contracts’: â€Å"nationality or ethnic representatives met with the president in cabinet sessions, where strong differences were sometimes aired by group spokespersons behind closed doors† (Lake & Rothchild 1997, p. 115). The constitution of 1974 seemed to break a fragile balance between the ethnic groups inspired by nationalism (the discussion will continue in the sections above). Cottam (2004, p. 201) called the constitution â€Å"an example of †¦ reduction of power†: In that constitution, Tito gave Kosovo and Vojvodina more power and autonomy (their own assembly, representation in the Serbian assembly, and a turn in the rotating presidency), Serbian power was reduced, and the other republics were reassured that Serbia would not be able to control the federal government. (Cottam 2004, p. 201) It seems that constitutional amendments were introduced partly in response to â€Å"nationalists who favoured the concentration of power with the republican elites† (Hudson 2003, p. 53). Tito warned about the menace caused by those emerging local elites in 1972. By 1980, when he died leaving no political heir to delegate powers to, the Yugoslav power-sharing system – â€Å"a form of coordination in which a somewhat autonomous state and a number of less autonomous ethnic-based and other interests engage in a process of mutual accommodation in accordance with commonly accepted procedural norms, rules, or understandings† (Lake & Rothchild 1997, p. 115) – collapsed. As Chary (2000, p. 735) stated: Tito could not solve all of Yugoslavia’s problems. He was never able truly to unite the country, and hostility among the nationalities remained, although he was able to keep them under control while he lived. When he died, however, these burst forward with a new fury. Post- Tito debate Cottam (2004, p. 201) described the situation in Yugoslavia immediately after Tito’s death in 1980: †¦ the economy was on a downward spiral, and no political leader had emerged who could fill Tito’s role as national unifier. †¦ He did not promote a successor, but instead developed the peculiar idea of a rotating federal presidency, which would rotate among the republics annually. This made it virtually impossible for any single political figure to emerge as a national leader, and it fueled the rise of nationalism among the separate nationalities in Yugoslavia. Despite the economic and political turmoils, as Popov (2000, p. 96) stated, â€Å"[e]ven after his death, Tito’s authority was untouchable.† Dimitrijević (2000, p. 424) also acknowledged that new political leaders (e.g., MiloÃ… ¡ević) were â€Å"actively protecting the cult of Tito’s personality primarily to please the army.† The concept of â€Å"collective leadership† introduced by Tito was aired by the 1980-leadership as â€Å"After Tito – Tito!† (Judah 2000, p. 156). Doder (1993, p. 3) once has remarked that â€Å"Tito’s strong hand was replaced by a council of bland ethnic chieftains.† It has been already noted that Yugoslavia represented an ethnical mosaic with people of different national backgrounds living under the same federal roof. Of course, by the 1980s the SFRY has stopped being an ideal federation where the units equally and eagerly complied with the economic and political dictatorship of the federal center. Since 1963, the Yugoslav leadership attempted at least formulaic retreats towards the ideas of republican individuality and decentralisation . The 1974 SFRY Constitution has granted the status of a â€Å"‘socialist, self-managing, democratic community’ of working people and citizens, and of the particular set of nations and nationalities comprised by it†Ã¢â‚¬  (Burg 1982, p. 141) to each of the republics and autonomous lands. They received a greater portion of authority in regard to decision-making at the local and federal levels. The paradox was that â€Å"Yugoslavia [appeared to be] a country without Yugoslavs† (Lendvai & Parcell 1991, p. 253). In other words, artificially drawn borders failed to coincide with cultural demarcation lines inherited by national memories. In regard to national self-identification, Sekulić, Massey and Hodson (1994) found out that the census category of ‘Yugoslav’ was introduced only in 1961, thus fifteen years upon the creation of the SFRY. However, the term denoted not all citizens of the federation, but â€Å"‘nationally noncommitted persons,’ and was treated as a residual category for those who offered no particular national identity† (Sekulić, Massey & Hodson 1994, p. 84). The identifier ‘Yugoslav’ was eagerly utilized by the Bosnians and the Kosovars of Muslim confession who protested against registering themselves as ‘Serbs’ or ‘Croats’ in the 1961 national census. By 1981, however, more and more people started identifying themselves as ‘Yugoslav’ in Croatia, Vojvodina and even Bosnia. Apart from the trend, the Kosovars preferred to register themselves as either ‘Albans’ or ‘Serbs.’ The trend points at the rise of national self-identification that climaxed after Tito’s death. In the early 1980s, as Burg (1982, p. 133) observed, â€Å"Despite the evolution of consensual decision-making practices, †¦ neither the central party leadership nor the federal government could resolve the conflicts that divided their members, and each fell victim to paralyzing deadlock.† The most vivid example of the post-Tito political imbalance was Kosovo. Hudson (2003, p. 64) called it â€Å"a powerful symbol in Serbian history.† However, the majority (85 percent) of the people who inhabited that autonomous province in the 1980s were ethnical Albanians. The constitution of 1974 granted Kosovo that was dominated by the Albanians enough voting power to take part in presidential and other elections, but many Albanian radical nationalists treated it as minor â€Å"step on the way to a Greater Albania† (Hudson 2003, p. 64). The Kosovan Albanians marched to the streets in 1981 to demand a republican status for their province and, in some ultimate cases, for the unification of Kosovo with Albania. The Yugoslav army entered Kosovo in the late 1983 to face terrorism in response to mass arrests (Hudson says that almost 7,000 people were arrested throughout the 1980s for nationalist activity in Kosovo). The minor group of Kosovars who were Serbs by origin fled the province. Stories began to circulate about the ‘persecution’ of Kosovo Serbs, the destruction of their churches and graveyards and frequent acts of violence. For every real incident, though, the rumour mill could fabricate a thousand more. (Judah 2000, p. 156) The poisonous smog of mythmaking and resurrection of past nationalist sorrows and grievances could not be dispelled by â€Å"the party [that] was governed by conservative nonentities who had been recalled by Tito from retirement, in conjunction with the obedient apparatchiks who had replaced the liberals and technocrats ten years earlier and who had been promoted on the basis of the criteria of obedience and faithful repetition of current slogans† (Dimitrijević 2000, p. 421). As Van Evera (1997, p. 54) has stated, such leadership’s bankruptcy in face of ideological distortion was logical in case of the post-Tito Yugoslavia: Democratic regimes are less prone to mythmaking, because such regimes are usually more legitimate and are free-speech tolerant; hence they can develop evaluative institutions to weed out nationalist myth. Absolutist dictatorships that possess a massive military superiority over their citizens are also less prone to mythmaking, because they can survive without it. The most dangerous regimes are those that depend on some measure of popular consent, but are narrowly governed by unrepresentative elites. Things are still worse if these governments are poorly institutionalized, are incompetent or corrupt for other reasons, or face overwhelming problems that exceed their governing capacities. The case of Kosovo contributed to the wave of Serbian nationalism. As Kozhemiakin (1998, p. 73) observed, â€Å"The most active revisionists were Serbs who were discontented with the structure of the federal system created by Tito †¦ and its alleged discrimination against Serbia.† Once Lendvai & Parcell (1991, p. 253) named four reasons for the nationality problem of Yugoslavia: â€Å"a fundamental conflict between federalism and centralization, a situation in which the largest nation’s overriding claims to power come up against the defence of the interests of the smaller nations and minorities,† â€Å"the bankruptcy of so-called ‘self-management socialism’,† â€Å"economic crisis† and â€Å"the North-South divide within the state.† The access of revisionism on the part of Serbs fitted their national leadership’s call for liberal democracy, that is â€Å"reformists were seeking to mobilize broader popular sentiment against conservative positions among party rank-and-file as well as the wider population, at a time when the economic crisis had discredited the conservatives’ ideological stance† (Gagnon 1997, p. 148). Although any remote possibility of liberalism sent shivers down the spine of Slobodan MiloÃ… ¡ević, a new Chairman of the Serbian League of Communists since 1986, it was he who unified Serbs under the slogan â€Å"No one should be allowed to beat you!† (as cited in Hudson 2003, p. 70) announced on the Kosovo battlefield, another cultural icon for the Serbs, in April 1987. By 1989, the autonomy of Vojvodina and Kosovo within the Serbian republic was abolished. Kosovo was stirred up by Albanian miners who protested against the Serbian expansion. The protestants were publicly justified by the Slovene president Milan Kućan that caused Serbs a great pain. Hudson (2003, pp. 70-71) stated on the point: Milosević’s championing of the Serbian cause against the autonomous provinces was in a sense ‘saying what had for long been unsayable under the prohibitions of the Titoist state. The political inconsistencies of the constitution served as an easily identifiable â€Å"cause† for the multiplicity of ills afflicting post-Tito Serbia. Thus, the terrible impact of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] reforms, which had exacerbated and compounded the tendencies towards secessionism in Slovenia and Croatia, also contributed to the rise of Serbian nationalism. (Hudson 2003,) In other words, it seems that not only MiloÃ… ¡ević was to be blamed for the disintegration of the Yugoslav state and the mass hysteria of nationalism torturing the South Slavs throughout the 1990s. To conclude the section about the post-Tito debates about the future of Yugoslavia without its charismatic proponent of Non-Alignment Communism and the artificially centralized federation, it makes sense to return to Sekulić, Massey and Hodson’s research (1994). The scholars observed a significant shift in public opinion from the consolidated Yugoslav national identity to the nation- and ethnic-specific formulations. The shift was made especially vivid from 1985 to 1989 across Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. The American scholars stated that the Yugoslav national identity was significantly affected by four factors: modernization, political participation, demographic factors, and majority/minority status. They emphasized that the concept of ‘Yugoslavism’ became a defensive strategy for the communities portrayed as minority nationalities (the cases of Croat-born individuals in Bosnia and Serbia, and of Serbs in Croatia). Sekulić, Massey and Hodson (1994, p. 95) finally stated: While this failure to establish a shared identity among the people of this region cannot be said to explain the disintegration of Yugoslavia, it is apparent that a shared identity was not much in evidence as a mediating mechanism sustaining Yugoslavia through difficult transitions or slowing its disintegration into warring national camps. Without any restrictive mechanisms to stop the SFRY disintegration, the country sloped down into the chaos of national conflicts. New Elites, Old Leaders’ Policy:   Post-Federalism Judah (2000) was evidently right saying that â€Å"history is accelerating† (p. 295), meaning that, â€Å"While the great empires of the past †¦ lasted for centuries, ‘modern’ empires are increasingly short-lived affairs.† The researcher also demonstrated that history repeated itself when he restored â€Å"all the old arguments which had so sapped the Yugoslavia born in 1918† (Judah 2000, p. 104). In 1918, Stjepan Radić, the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, declared to the deputies of a National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs: †¦ you think it is enough to say we Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes are one people because we speak one language and that on account of this we must also have a unitary centralist state †¦ and that only such a linguistic and state unity can make us happy. . . . our peasant in general, and especially our Croat peasant, does not wish to hear one more thing about †¦ a state which you are imposing on him by force. . . . You think that you can frighten the people and that in this way you will win the people to your politics. Maybe you will win the Slovenes, I do not know. Maybe you will also win the Serbs. But I am certain that you will never win the Croats . . . because the whole Croat peasant people are equally against your centralism as against militarism, equally for a republic as for a popular agreement with the Serbs. And should you want to impose your centralism by force, this will happen. We Croats shall say openly and clearly: If the Serbs really want to have such a centralist state and government, may God bless them with it, but we Croats do not want any state organization except a confederated federal republic. (as cited in Judah 2000, pp. 105-6) Radić was excluded from the party for his words, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was declared on 1 December 1918. From this date onwards people of Yugoslavia could at least hope for, if not live in, the state where every nation would enjoy equality and solidarity. The Yugoslav constitution of 1974 put an end to those idealistic aspirations. Dimitrijević (2000, p. 399) named it to be â€Å"one of the reasons for the civil war in that country, or at least as one of the contributing factors leading to Yugoslavia’s disorderly and bloody dissolution.† The document’s aim was to smooth †¦ a general pattern of inter-regional and inter-ethnic fragmentation which had occurred in the late 1960s but which Tito had sharply quashed through the ‘surgical’ use of military police power and political purges of the regional party machines. (Cohen 1992, p. 304) Pursuing such goal, the constitution of 1974 allowed a few liberal amendments conducted in 1971 in favor of republics and autonomous regions. As Burg (1982) observed, the Montenegro region was able to extend the conceptual framework of ‘the republic’ by introducing categorization by ethnicity. A functionary of the Montenegrin regional parliament notes that â€Å"public discussions of the Draft Constitution showed that the constitutional definition of the republic has politico-psychological significance. . . .† Added to the draft definition was a section that â€Å"emphasizes that Montenegro is the state of the Montenegrin people and members of other nations and nationalities. . . .† (Burg 1982, p. 141) Serbia was defined as â€Å"†the state of the Serbian people and parts of other nations and nationalities who live and realize their sovereign rights in it† (Burg 1982, p. 141). Despite those â€Å"concessions to the linguistic, cultural and corporate political rights of the nations and nationalities,† as Burg (1982, p. 142) observed, the constitution of 1974 â€Å"continues to hold the line against changes that might threaten the cohesiveness of Yugoslav society.† However, in 1992 it became apparent that those few ‘concessions’ became a ‘magic stick’ for â€Å"ethno-regional political and bureaucratic elites† that allowed them â€Å"to substantially advance their autonomy and power during the 1980s† (Cohen 1992, p. 304). Dimitrijević (2000) argued that the constitution of 1974 contained at least some grains of confederate structure that would be possible for Yugoslavia on due time. Article 3 defined the republics as state structures organized according to the principles of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘equal rights.’ Dimitrijević stressed that the term ‘sovereignty’ was used only in regard to the republics but not the federation itself. Part I of Basic Principles became â€Å"an ominous statement† (Dimitrijević 2000, p. 406) in this context so far as it talked about â€Å"the right to secession, on the basis of their will freely expressed in the common struggle of all nations and nationalities in the National Liberation War and Socialist Revolution, and in conformity with their historic aspirations† (as cited in Dimitrijević 2000, p. 406). A reference to ‘historic aspirations’ was really dangerous. As Van Evera (1997, p. 46) has noted, when â€Å"the groups with the greatest historic grievances [are] also the groups with the greatest power,† such â€Å"combination brings together both the motive and the capacity to make trouble† and becomes really explosive. This happened when MiloÃ… ¡ević initiated the â€Å"wave of nationalist euphoria† (Judah 2000, p. 163), and †¦ the Serbs were going through an exercise of mass catharsis. All the old fears and the old banned nationalist songs bubbled back up to the surface. (Judah 2000, p. 163) The Serbs always used to victimize themselves and, to be sincere, they had enough reasons to do so. However, that aggrievement, as Van Evera, was far from being passive. General Veljko Kadijević, Yugoslavia’s defence minister, played a significant role in arming the Serbs’ national grievance. By 1990 the Yugoslav military adopted the system of the Territorial Defence (TO) and Total National Defence. This meant that, apart from the regular army, each republic had reserve forces to call upon in the event of war. These were to be local forces which, in the event of a breakdown in communications, would be able to continue functioning on their own. For political guidance they would work closely with the leadership of the local Communist Party. By substituting the Communist Party with the SDS [Serbian Democratic Party], the Serbian leadership was able to make use of the TO system for mass mobilisations of Serbs in what was to become Krajina and then in Bosnia. (Judah 2000, p. 170) When Slovenia declared independence on 25 June, 1991, within the following forty-eight hours the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) attempted to retake the Slovene border that had turned from the inter-republican into the international one. The Slovene TO forces blocked the JNA soldiers who were predominantly conscripts. As Judah (2000, pp. 178-9) observed, The fact that the army had got involved in fighting in Slovenia was at the time seen by some as proof that nostalgic communist generals were desperate to preserve the old country. In fact it was nothing of the kind. Many people were of course deeply confused and loyalties were divided, but in the end men like Kadijević had already made the decision that as Yugoslavia was dying they had little choice but to seize as much of it as they could for the Serbs. Judging from the researchers’ accounts (Judah 2000; Hudson 2000; Dimitrijević 2000), there could be no bloodshed if there was a chance of a proper confederalizing process. Dimitrijević (2000, p. 421) blamed †¦ constitutional experts, political scientists and jurists who do not seem to have made any effort to provide constitutional solutions for real political difficulties, to secure alternative decision making in the case of the failure of the party system and thus not to save Yugoslavia if it was not wanted, but to increase the chances for a reasonable transition into explicitly confederate arrangements and the peaceful dissolution or separation of the constituent units. Another group of researchers (Gagnon 1997; Snyder & Ballentine 1996) accused Yugoslav political and military elites of playing with the dangerous fire of nationalism. Snyder and Ballentine (1996) argued that nationalism could be an incident product of the old and new elites re-arranging the informational marketplace in democratizing states. Snyder and Ballentine (1996, p. 10) introduced the concept of ‘the marketplace of ideas† as the situation â€Å"in which contending discourses and evidence confront each other directly on an even playing field.† The scholars argued that the Yugoslav marketplace of ideas was highly segmented in the 1980s that caused an informational imbalance: Tito’s decentralizing reforms of the 1960s, which were intended in part to assuage and defuse ethno-nationalism, put Yugoslavia’s media in the hands of regional leaderships, which in the 1980s fell into the hands of nationalists like MiloÃ… ¡ević. This federalization of power left pan-Yugoslav reformers like Ante Marković with no instrument for transcending the Serb and Croat nationalists’ media monopoly over their respective ethnic niche markets. (Snyder & Ballentine 1996, p. 21) It seems that the post-Tito Yugoslavia was a place where a severe intra-elite competition took place. Cohen (1992, p. 302) spoke about â€Å"the impressive pluralization of the Yugoslav political landscape† after Tito, accompanied by the lamentably â€Å"rapid erosion of federal authority.† Prime Minister Ante Marković, who had skillfully reoriented federal government policy along post-socialist reformist lines, made an admirable effort to implement country-wide economic and political changes during 1990, but his ability to fully accomplish such measures was stymied by the autarkic policies of contending ethno-regional elites. Marković’s formation of a federally-oriented party in mid-1990 – the Alliance of Reform Forces – to garner support for the unity of the country looked initially promising, but the Alliance did poorly against ethnically and regionally-oriented parties in the republican elections. (Cohen 1992, p. 302) Snyder & Ballentine (1996, p. 16) explained the shifts of political regime on the scale from autocratic to pluralistic in economic terms: As a democratizing political system opens up, old elites and rising counter-elites must compete for the support of new entrants into the marketplace through popular appeals, including appeals to the purported common interests of elites and mass groups in pursuing nationalistic aims against out-groups. In many instances, including the case of Serbian President Slobodan MiloÃ… ¡ević, these elites evince little interest in nationalism until rising pressure for mass political participation gives them an incentive to do so. It is interesting that Gagnon (1997, p. 134) also talked about elites manipulating public opinion and remaking a political scene to suit their needs: †¦ violent conflict along ethnic cleavages is provoked by elites in order to create a domestic political context where ethnicity is the only politically relevant identity. It thereby constructs the individual interest of the broader population in terms of the threat to the community defined in ethnic terms. Such a strategy is a response by ruling elites to shifts in the structure of domestic political and economic power: by constructing individual interest in terms of the threat to the group, endangered elites can fend off domestic challengers who seek to mobilize the population against the status quo, and can better position themselves to deal with future challenges. Gagnon pointed an indicative finger solely at Serbian elite for all the internal wars that shook Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Conversely, Hudson (2003) referred to Croatian and Bosnian Muslim nationalists as warmongers. But the researcher saved even bitterer accusations for international elites: Without the prospect – and eventual achievement – of international recognition, and the acceptance by a number of foreign states of the arguments of the nationalists, it is possible that a negotiated settlement could have been arrived at which would either have maintained some form of Yugoslavia, or achieved a peaceful dissolution. (Hudson 2003, p. 89) To provide an account of Yugoslavia sliding towards disintegration, it makes sense to summarize the viewpoints of that time Yugoslav political leaders in regard to the federation/confederation dichotomy. Serbs, Croats and Muslims were the groups most susceptible to nationalism so far as they were scattered across the republics and districts. Two of those groups identified themselves as ‘nations’ by language, history, and culture, whereas Muslims distinguished themselves from the other Yugoslavs on the principle of confession. Both Serbs and Croats had their own republics of Serbia and Croatia, respectively, but each republic (as well as other regions) had the so-called ‘pockets,’ like Krajina between Serbia and Croatia or Kosovo, where various nations, nationalities and ethnic groups were closely intermingled. Montenegrins historically and culturally associated themselves with Serbs although did not want to lose their independence. Slovenia was rather ethnically homogenous, whereas Bosnia hosted people of not only various ethnicities but also of various confessions. As it has been mentioned above, a Bosnian Croat Marković who was the last Yugoslavia’s Prime Minister (March 1989 – December 1991) was the proponent of pan-Yugoslavism so that the country of South Slavs despite its motley ethnic composition would be a solid economic and political body. The Serbs insisted on centralization of the state that resembled a person who carried fire in one hand and water in the other. The Serb leadership called for preserving the federal structure because in case of confederalizing many Serbs would stay outside the Serbian Republic borders. The Bosnians initially supported the idea of a centralized state, whereas the Croats and Slovenes violently opposed it, demanding either to weaken federative bonds or let them secede. In such a hot atmosphere, the Yugoslavs stepped into â€Å"the idiotic chaos in which the state died† (Judah 2000, p. 109). The Slide toward Disintegration Slovenia declared independence on 25 June, 1991, and issued its declaration of sovereignty in July 1991. Croatia seceded from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) the same day as Slovenia although it declared independence only on October 8, 1991. Thus, these two former SFRY-republics were the first to flee the burning house of Yugoslavia despite loud protests of Serbs, both the Belgrade leadership and the common people from northern Dalmatia, Lika, the Kordun, and Banija that were situated in the then sovereign Croatia. By that time, those Serbs who lived on the territory of then sovereign Croatia have already tasted all bitterness of Tudjman’s regime. Croats elected Franjo Tudjman, the leader of Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), as president in May, 1990, †¦ in an anti-semitic, anti-Serb campaign under slogans such as ‘a thousand years of uninterrupted Croatian statehood’. †¦ Slogans like ‘Croatia for the Croats only’, led to excesses against the Serbs, who were not only pushed out of their positions in the police force – a move authorized by the Croatian government, but also from posts in administration and enterprises. (Hudson 2003, p. 79) Once could say that a catastrophe started in January 1990, when Slovenian deputies aired their vision of the Yugoslav Communist League as â€Å"an alliance of republican communist parties† (Hudson 2003, p. 78) at the YCL’s Extraordinary 14th Congress session. They aimed at diminishing the authority of the old partocracy and to pave the road for secession. In April 1990, Milan Kućan, once a communist and then the leader of a centre-right coalition, has easily won the republican elections in Slovenia. In May 1990, the Yugoslav Communist League was dissolved by the Yugoslav Congress, and multi-party elections were held in all republics. By that time the Serbs of the Serbian Republic have been applauding to the three-component strategy of the conservatives and their leader MiloÃ… ¡ević who formally assumed presidency on 8 May 1989. MiloÃ… ¡ević and his allies have already indisposed the Yugoslav army against internal and external enemies, more or less successfully repressed the reported cases of ethnic â€Å"genocide† against Serbs from Kosovan Albanians, and have made multiple attempts â€Å"to portray Serbia as the victim of Yugoslavia, setting the stage for attacks on the other republics’ autonomy free multi-party elections† (Gagnon 1997, p. 150). The Serbian new elite were obsessed with the idea of ‘Pan-Serbianism.’ By the fall of 1990 the Serbian conservative government had dissolved the Kosovo Assembly whose Albanian delegates drafted a 140-article Constitution of the â€Å"sovereign Republic of Kosovo† demanding a status of independent Yugoslavia’s unit for their autonomous district. As Cohen (1992, p. 310) have noted, â€Å"The Serbian government labelled the ‘so-called’ Constitution as an illegitimate action on the part of ‘a movement directly and exclusively targeted at the breaking up the territorial integrity of Serbia and Yugoslavia’.† In 1990, as Judah (2000, p. 165) observed, only Bosnians â€Å"were still talking about keeping Yugoslavia together,† whereas â€Å"MiloÃ… ¡ević ‘s Serbian nationalism was the greatest boost to Tudjman’s Croatian nationalism, [so] that the Pandora’s box had been opened [and] there was no shuttin g it.† On 12 May 1991 referendum in Krajina was held for the local Serbs to choose either to join the Republic of Serbia, â€Å"and thus remain in Yugoslavia with Serbia, Montenegro and others that want to preserve Yugoslavia† (Judah 2000, p. 180), or be labelled as predators. It was one of many Serbian referendums that were to punctuate the political landscape over the next few years. It was a farce dressed up as democracy, by which people who had been bombarded by a single media message were herded to the polls to turn in the requisite popular mandate for the authorities. There was never any public debate on the question and it could be assumed that if you were not going to vote as the authorities wanted then you were not a Serb and hence had no right still to be living where you were. (Judah 2000, p. 180) On June 30, 1991, the Council for the Defense of the Constitution held a secret meeting, when the Serbian representative, Borislav Jović, officially stated that the Serbian leadership would not object to Slovene secession. The Federal Defense Secretary at the time, General Veljko Kadijević, warned that once Slovenia was let go, the JNA would defend the borders of a new Yugoslavia. Judah (2000, p. 178) called that meeting â€Å"simply the last nail in Yugoslavia’s coffin.† To utilize the concept proposed by Snyder and Ballentine (1996), the Yugoslavian ‘marketplace of ideas’ was not only segmented but multi-layered. That was a time of secret alliances and councils’ closed sessions. In public the presidents of the six republics were still arguing about whether some form of Yugoslavia could be preserved. MiloÃ… ¡ević wanted a ‘modern federation’, which was code for Serbian domination. Kućan and Tudjman wanted ‘an asymmetric federation’, which was code for independence while still enjoying the benefits of Yugoslavia without paying for them. Alija Izetbegović of Bosnia and Kiro Gligorov of Macedonia argued for a compromise, but having little political clout they were ignored. (Judah 2000, p. 180) Gagnon (1997, p. 157) directly called the elite’s policy of shaping public opinion Machiavellian: The Serbian conservatives’ response was to continue to demonize other ethnic nationalities, and also to begin provoking confrontations and violent conflicts along ethnic lines and to discredit the very idea of a federal Yugoslavia, calling it the creation of a Vatican-Comintern conspiracy. While the public had to listen to those hypocritical debates in media, the so-called RAM plan was secretly adopted in 1991-1992. It was said to allow the Serb occupation of territory in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and the invasion of the JNA troops into a Muslim area. Croatia and Serbia armed at full speed and started mutual firebombing. On 27 April 1992, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) was founded as comprising Serbia and Montenegro. It was supposed to enlarge the FRY at the expense of Krajina and some territories carved from Bosnia-Herzegovina to form the Republika Srpska. The FRY constitution proclaimed the newly born state to be the successor state of the old Yugoslavia that caused active protests from other former republics. And only a decade later people could read the sincere opinion of one of the key figures of that period on the issue of preserving Yugoslavia.   Judah (2000, p. 201) reported that on 23 January 1992 Nikola Koljević, once a teacher from Sarajevo and then one of the most radical pro-Serbian nationalists from the SDS (Serbian Democratic Party), said: It’s time to stop this absurd idea of a mini-Yugoslavia this is just a game. If only Serbs and Montenegrins want it, what’s the point of trying to force others to stay? We should start thinking in terms of a new federation of Serb lands. When the SDS leader was pronouncing those words, the Serbs (still federals) and Croats (already non-Yugoslavs) have just agreed to cease fire under the pressure of international community. The Bosnian Serbs have gone through a referendum held in November 1991, in which they voted down the possibility of Bosnia secession from Yugoslavia. A month later upon Koljević’s confession on the issue of federalism, Bosnia-Hercegovina declared its independence. That resulted in the Republika Srpska (created by Serbs leaving in Bosnia-Hercegovina) declaring its own independence under the leadership of Radovan Karadzić. The civil war in Bosnia between Serbs, Croats, and Muslims continued for three and a half years ending on 1 November 1995 due to the armed interference of the United States, United Nations and NATO military forces. In 1997, MiloÃ… ¡ević was elected President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavi. The third wave of terror and aggression poured down onto Yugoslavia at night between March 24 and 25 1999 when the United States bombed Belgrade in response to the reports of Kosovan Albanians about Serbs treating them inappropriately. On 9 June the same year Yugoslav military leaderships agreed to remove their forces from Kosovo in exchange to the withdrawal of the NATO army and the entry of an international security force. The bombardment was stopped on 10 June with the adoption of UN Resolution 1244. In September 2000, MiloÃ… ¡ević lost in the Yugoslav presidential election. As Hudson (2003, p. 138) observed: The US and the EU used these elections finally to achieve what they had been trying to do for over a decade, and had failed to do through bombing – to satisfy their own economic and strategic goals in the post-Soviet period. These included the integration of all of the component republics of the former Yugoslavia into the free-market economic system, and the removal of a government in Belgrade which had not only a socialist economic orientation, but also a strategic orientation away from NATO and towards Russia. That was the end of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Conclusion One would say that it was Serb nationalism that provoked counternationalism in other Yugoslav republics. However, it would be better to state without bias that Serbs are to be blamed as much as Croats or Albanians in the dissolution of Yugoslavia and mass killings. On the level of the state or quasi-state, new elites used national claims over pieces of Yugoslavia’s territory (that was an ethnic mosaic) to pursue their own economic and political goals. The struggle for power was not only for Serbian or Albanian control over Kosovo but for power per se. In their ambitious attempts, new political elites exploited the disturbances that already existed in the general populace and, when desirable and feasible, they created new turmoils. Disturbances stemmed from the national identities of each group and from the ways in which those identities played out in everyday life. So Judah was right (2000, p. 313) stating that there was â€Å"the cancer of discontent, which ended up killing Yugoslavia.† Bibliography Bokovoy, M. K. 1998, Peasants and Communists: Politics and Ideology in the Yugoslav Countryside, 1941-1953, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa. Burg, S. L. 1982, ‘Republican and Provincial Constitution-Making in Yugoslavia Politics’, Publius, vol. 12, no. 1, 131–55. Chary, F. B. 2000, ‘Tito’ in World Leaders of the Twentieth Century, Salem Press, Pasadena, Calif. Cohen, L. J. 1992, ‘Post-Federalism and Judicial Change in Yugoslavia: The Rise of Ethno-Political Justice’, International Political Science Review, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 301-319. Cottam, M. L. 2004, Introduction to Political Psychology, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, N.J. Dimitrijević, V. 2000, ‘The 1974 Constitution as a Factor in the Collapse of Yugoslavia, or as a Sign of Decaying Totalitarianism’ in The Road to War in Serbia: Trauma and Catharsis, ed. N. Popov & D. Gojković, New York Central European University Press, Budapest. Doder, D. 1993, ‘Yugoslavia: New War, Old Hatreds’, Foreign Policy, no. 91, pp. 3-23. Elazar, D. J. 1991, Exploring Federalism, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, AL. Frankel, J. 1955, ‘Federalism in Yugoslavia’, The American Political Science Review, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 416-430. Gagnon, V.P. 1997, ‘Ethnic Nationalism and International Conflict: The Case of Serbia’ in Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict, ed. Michael E. Brown, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. Hudson, K. 2003, Breaking the South Slav Dream: The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia, VA Pluto Press, Sterling. Judah, T. 2000, The Serbs History, Myth, and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn. Kozhemiakin, A. V. 1998, Expanding the Zone of Peace?: Democratization and International Security, Palgrave Macmillan, New York. Lake, D. & Rothchild, D. 1997, ‘Containing Fear: The Origins and Management of Ethnic Conflict’ in Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict, ed. Michael E. Brown, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. Lendvai, P. & L. Parcell. 1991, ‘Yugoslavia without Yugoslavs: The Roots of the Crisis’, International Affairs, vol. 67, no. 2, pp. 251-261. Popov, N. 2000, ‘Traumatology of the Party State’ in The Road to War in Serbia: Trauma and Catharsis, ed. N. Popov & D. Gojković, New York Central European University Press, Budapest. Sekulić, D., G. Massey & R. Hodson. 1994, ‘Who Were the Yugoslavs? Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia’, American Sociological Review, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 83-97. Snyder, J. & K. Ballentine. 1996, ‘Nationalism and the Marketplace of Ideas’, International Security, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 5-40. Van Evera, S. 1997, ‘Hypotheses on Nationalism and War’ in Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict, ed. M. Brown, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Williams, J. 1998, Legitimacy in International Relations and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Black Friday

The phenomenon of Black Friday Bustling city streets, hour-long lines, and retail store chaos: only one scenario explains the commonality between these situations, shopping on Black Friday. For half a century Black Friday has become an unofficial retail holiday in the United States. It is a day that offers incredible discounts and killer deals, and most notoriously, it brings a frenzy of crazed shoppers to local retailers looking to save on purchases.Marketing strategies, paired with consumers’ need to locate the best deals on Christmas gifts has led to Black Friday being celebrated as a consumption ritual comparable in importance to Thanksgiving Day. (Thomas and Peters, 2011) How has Black Friday become the largest retail sales day of the year? What is it that drives people to artificially induced hyper consumption, almost like an annual ritual? Many scientist and psychologists have many different theories and conclusions of why Black Friday has become the biggest shopping da y of the year.In this paper, I will take your through the research and conclusions that many psychologists have produced and the advantages and disadvantages of Black Friday. Dr. Stephanie Sarkis, Ph. D. explored the work of Jane Boyd Thomas and Cara Peters, professors at South Carolina's Winthrop University, who spent two years in research trying to find common traits in Black Friday shoppers. They conducted thirty-eight extensive interviews with â€Å"experienced† Black Friday shoppers and found four recurring themes: 1. Familial bonding (multiple generations and close friends) 2. Strategic planning . The great race 4. Mission accomplished But how do the four themes they came up with relate to one another? Thomas and Peters figured that all the traits when analyzed together showed one commonality. They wrote, â€Å"the traits are coalesced around a military metaphor, and is a bonding activity Shoppers prepare for the ritual by scanning Black Friday ads, and they map out th eir strategy. † (Sarkis 2011) In essence, the family is a type of team that scans adds, plans their route and potential purchases, executes their plans by buying products, and rejoices in their accomplishments.When all of these traits are analyzed individually, they mean little to main the main outcome, bonding. But when all the traits are looked at collectively, they all contribute to the overall success and goal of bonding. Besides giving us a breakdown of bonding activities, the analysis also shows how the average consumer plan for Black Friday. Just as Sarkis found themes that make up this military metaphor, Byun, professor of consumer affairs at Auburn University came up with her own theory on why people react the way they do on Black Friday. Crowds create a sense of competition — such as when hundreds of shoppers are rushing to collect marked-down goods — they generate a different feeling entirely. Competition creates what’s called hedonic shopping v alue, or a sense of enjoyment from the mere process of buying goods. At certain levels, consumers enjoy arousal and challenges during the shopping process. † (Khazan 2011) In essence what Byun is saying is consumers get more enjoyment because the crowds create an obstacle, which hinders the execution of the plans and preparations made. The crowds make getting what they want harder, which creates more value for the goods purchased.Just as Byun noted that crowds contribute to the Black Friday Craze, Kelly McGonigal, Ph. D. describes another factors that plays a big part in the â€Å"Black Friday frenzy†. Retailers, she notes, use innovative designs to lure customers into their stores and keep them there. McGonigal says â€Å"time pressure sales on limited products or scarce resources† triggers a negative physiological affect on the consumer. Scarcity for a certain commodity creates a sense of urgency to act now, a natural instinct to survive. This survival instinct can be related to hunting for some people.Black Friday is â€Å"hunting for women,† said Leisa Reinecke Flynn, professor of marketing and fashion merchandising at the University of Southern Mississippi. â€Å"It’s so much like deer hunting it’s hard to tell the two apart. † (Khazan 2011) Unfortunately, shopping on Black Friday is not motivated by survival instincts or a life in death situation. This paradox stimulates unusual behavior in consumers that creates disadvantages and potential dangers for those that are not necessarily into the hunt. The concept of Black Friday creates a â€Å"perfect storm† for consumer misbehavior.Misbehavior, as defined by Lennon, Johnson, and Lee is, â€Å"acts that violate accepted norms of conduct in consumption contexts. † (Lennon, Johnson, Lee, 2011) This compulsive behavior, or compulsive consumption, feeds off of the idea of scarcity. It induces people to act inappropriately harming others and often the mselves. â€Å"For many, if not most compulsive purchasers, buying is a reaction to stress or unpleasant situations. Compulsive consumption is a type of consumer behavior which is inappropriate, typically excessive, and clearly disruptive to the lives of other individuals. (Ronald, Thomas, and Raymond 1987) Both hunting and shopping hinge on long-standing traditions and generally involve pursuing a goal as a group. Whether the group actually hits its target is secondary to the fun of the chase. Hunting and shopping as shown above are very closely linked and motivated by the idea of scarcity. Just like there are limited deer in the forest, there are limited goods in the stores. The result is paradoxical in nature. People are fraudulently deceived into acting compulsively. (Herpen, Pieters and Zeelenberg 2005)Just as Ronald, Thomas, and Raymond concluded that compulsive behavior negatively affects the lives of others, Peter McGraw, Ph. D. drew a similar connection. He focuses more on social trends and pressures being the root of the problem. In The Link between Thanksgiving Gluttony and Black Friday Insanity, McGraw makes a connection between Black Friday shopping and Thanksgiving Dinner. He explores the idea that once a year, people will consume more calories in one meal, than the average person consumes on a normal day.The next day they wake up, or sometimes not sleeping at all, and go shopping for hours on end. (McGraw and Warner 2011) Dr. McGraw’s research shows us that in a short period of forty eights hour there is over consumption of food on Thanksgiving and the hyper consumption or shopping on Black Friday. McGraw believes that the cause of this phenomenon is social influence and pressure. He writes, â€Å"One of the hallmarks of psychological science is that we are influenced by the actions of others—often more so than we'd like to admit.Sometimes we're impelled to take positive actions, such as switching to reusable bags or cutting down on littering. Other times, social influence can be quite negative. When it comes to Thanksgiving and Black Friday, unfortunately, the influences skew more toward bad than good. † (McGraw and Warner 2011) In other words McGraw places responsibility of hyper consumption on social trends, pressures, and even perhaps familial rituals for the ever-popular Black Friday. Another concept of Black Friday is one of mutual benefit for both consumer and retailer.Consumers’ benefit from large discounts on all sorts of items including clothing, electronics, furniture, and literally any other commodity available on the market. Retailers’ benefit by getting out of the red zone, finally making a profit for the fiscal year. The opportunities available on Black Friday is what drove 212 million shoppers to stores during Black Friday weekend in 2011. (Wilson, 2010) Retailers experience surging sales during Black Friday and the days that follow. This monetary benefit is what drives t heir extensive promotion and deal offerings, further influencing the consumer’s willingness to partake in the shopping frenzy.In a society where a corporation or business’s main purpose is to grow profits for the benefit of its shareholders, a company’s number one purpose is to increase sales, in order to increase profits. According to a New York Times article written by Adam Davidson, approximately one fifth of retailer’s total annual sales are made during the holiday shopping season. (Davidson, 2011) In conclusion, we can see that shopping on Black Friday brings people together in one way or another. For some, it brings people together in a positive way.Families and friends are able to work as a team who plan, prepare and execute their plans to achieve their goals. For others, Black Friday shoppers experience the negative affects of other people’s behavior. There are also advantages and disadvantages for both the consumer and retailer. Consumers get amazingly cheap prices on products while retailers experience a massive surge in sales. However one may look at Black Friday, it is a day that cannot be ignored. It’s influence and popularity are ever growing and expanding. Reference Page Davidson, Adam. The Black Friday Effect: Let’s Stimulate the Economy with Inflation. † The New York Times, 16 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. Herpen, Erica van, Rik Pieters, and Marcel Zeelenberg (2005) ,†How Product Scarcity Impacts on Choice: Snob and Bandwagon Effects†, in Advances in Consumer Research Volume 32, eds. Geeta Menon and Akshay R. Rao, Advances in Consumer Research Volume 32 : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 623-624. Faber, J. Ronald, O’Guinn, C Thomas, and Krych, Raymond. (1987) â€Å"Compulsive Consumption†, in Advances in Consumer Research Volume 14, eds.Melanie Wallendorf and Paul Anderson, Advances in Consumer Research Volume 14: Association for Sonsumer Research, Pages: 132-135. McGonigal, Kelly, Ph. D. â€Å"The Science of Willpower. † Comments on â€Å"Black Friday Shopping: How Stores Use Psychology to Fill Your Cart† N. p. , 19 Nov. 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. . McGraw, Peter, Ph. D. , and Warner, Joel. â€Å"The Humor Code. † The Link between Thanksgiving Gluttony and Black Friday Insanity. N. p. , 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. . Ridgwar, Nicole, â€Å"Black Friday Sales Hit Record. † CNNMoney. Cable News Netwrok, 26 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. Sarkis, Stephanie, Ph. D. â€Å"Here, There, and Everywhere. † Black Friday: A Collective Consumption Ritual. N. p. , 20 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. . Thomas, Jane Boyd, and Peters, Cara. (2011) â€Å"An exploratory investigation of Black Friday consumption rituals†, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 39 Iss: 7, pp. 522 – 537 Wallendorf, M. , Arnould, E. â€Å"We gather together: consumption rituals of Thanksgiving Dayâ € , in Journal of Consumer Research, (1991) Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 13-31. Wilson, April. â€Å"By the Numbers: Black Friday Shoppers and Their Impact on the Economy. † The Luckie ReTink Tank. 23 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Oct 2012. . Black Friday The three sources to be compared are all in relation to the events that occurred on â€Å"Black Friday†, particularly surrounding the conduct of the metropolitan police. Source 10, taken from â€Å"The Times† newspaper presents the view that the police were more victims of the women and raiders that they were trying to control, and that it took some effort to restrain the women that were protesting on that day.Whereas source 11, taken from a memorandum that was sent to the home office after ‘Black Friday† gives the view that the police were acting violently towards the women protesting and that the women in this situation were the victims. Source 12, a statement from a suffragette who participated in â€Å"Black Friday† presents a similar opinion to that in source 11, indicating that the woman in question received several injuries from a police officer.The events that occurred on â€Å"Black Friday† and the conduct of the police have been under dispute by many historians, which some taking the side of source 10, and others agreeing more with the recollections presented in sources 11 and 12- it can therefore be argued how much sources 11 and 12 challenge the view contained in source 10 about the conduct of the police on â€Å"Black Friday†. Source 10, taken from â€Å"The Times’ newspaper on 19th November 1910 is an extract from a report covering the events of what eventually became known as â€Å"Black Friday†.It presents the view that the police â€Å"kept their temper very well’ towards â€Å"the ladies who flung themselves against (them)†. It also speaks of how â€Å"several police had their helmets knocked off in carrying out their duty† and later mentions that â€Å"one was disabled by a kick on the ankle† and another â€Å"was cut on the face by a belt† therefore implying that the women who were present on Black Friday were acting violently towards the police , and that any rough handling of the police towards the protesters was only in response to the treatment they were receiving.It could be said then, that this article presents the police in a positive light and shows the suffragettes to be the ones at fault on â€Å"Black Friday† which comes as no surprise given that the article comes from â€Å"The Times†- a newspaper that would have been primarily aimed at educated men, and its purpose therefore would have been to share the opinion that women were out of control and lacked the dignity to receive the vote. Source 11 on the other hand disagrees with the view presented in source source 10.It is an extract from a memorandum by the Parliamentary Conciliation Committee for Women’s Suffrage send to the Home Office after â€Å"Black Friday†. It agrees with the source ten in the sense that it admits a â€Å"relentless struggle† occurred between the police and the suffragettes, but it disagrees with source 10 because it presents the view that it was the police acting violently towards the women, who it says were â€Å"flung hither and thither amid moving traffic, and into the hands of a crows which was sometimes rough and indecent†.This opinion is presented because the purpose of the memorandum sent to the home office was to request a public inquiry into the conduct of the police on â€Å"Black Friday†, because they did not follow their â€Å"usual course of action† which â€Å"would have been to arrest the women on a charge of obstruction† but they â€Å"had been instructed to avoid, as far as possible, making any arrests† which is why, the women argue that the police were so violent.Also, this article presents the events of â€Å"Black Friday† in such a different light, because it was written by those who sympathized with Suffragettes and therefore supported them, the Committee was set up in 1910 to encourage support for women’s suffr age, so it would have wanted to make the actions of the police look bad in order to gain support for the women who were protesting. Similar to source 11, Source 12, from a statement by a 60 year old suffragette who had participated in the demonstration on â€Å"Black Friday† is of the opinion that it was the police who acted wrongly during the events, and not the women protesting.The suffragette talks about how she was â€Å"seized by several policemen† and how â€Å"one twisted (her) right arm behind (her) back with such brute force that (she) really thought he would break it†. She also mentions that â€Å"another policeman gave (her) a terrible blow in (her) back, which sent (her) whirling into the crowd†- clearly presenting the view that the police were acting violently and out of conduct towards the women and as a result disputing the viewpoint held in source 10.However, it must be taken into consideration the purpose of this statement, which was a te stament before the Parliamentary Conciliation Committee for Women’s Suffrage, who we know from source 11 sympathized with suffragettes and were trying to gain support from them. Therefore, the women who gave this testament would have been trying to give as much evidence against the police as possible in order for the Committee to have a case against the police and order for an inquiry to be made.In addition to this, it was the aim of suffragettes at time to create as much publicity towards their cause as they could, whether good or bad, they wanted attention, and by complaining about the police it would have prolonged the time that â€Å"Black Friday† was publicized in the media which was what they wanted. In conclusion, sources 11 and 12, which present the view that it was the police who acted wrongly on â€Å"Black Friday† disagree with the view presented in source 10, which is that it was the women who were at fault.This is because the purpose of both sources 11 and 12 was to create sympathy for the suffragettes in order to gain support for their cause, whereas source 10 was aimed at an audience who did not support women’s suffrage, and by publishing an article presenting women in a bad light, â€Å"The Times† newspaper would have been ensuring that it’s readers remained loyal. Although sources 11 and 12 agree with source 10 in the fact that a violent dispute took place, they differ in opinion of who was the victim in the situation, therefore sources 11 and 12 challenge the view presented in source 10 about the conduct of the police on â€Å"Black Friday†. Black Friday The phenomenon of Black Friday Bustling city streets, hour-long lines, and retail store chaos: only one scenario explains the commonality between these situations, shopping on Black Friday. For half a century Black Friday has become an unofficial retail holiday in the United States. It is a day that offers incredible discounts and killer deals, and most notoriously, it brings a frenzy of crazed shoppers to local retailers looking to save on purchases.Marketing strategies, paired with consumers’ need to locate the best deals on Christmas gifts has led to Black Friday being celebrated as a consumption ritual comparable in importance to Thanksgiving Day. (Thomas and Peters, 2011) How has Black Friday become the largest retail sales day of the year? What is it that drives people to artificially induced hyper consumption, almost like an annual ritual? Many scientist and psychologists have many different theories and conclusions of why Black Friday has become the biggest shopping da y of the year.In this paper, I will take your through the research and conclusions that many psychologists have produced and the advantages and disadvantages of Black Friday. Dr. Stephanie Sarkis, Ph. D. explored the work of Jane Boyd Thomas and Cara Peters, professors at South Carolina's Winthrop University, who spent two years in research trying to find common traits in Black Friday shoppers. They conducted thirty-eight extensive interviews with â€Å"experienced† Black Friday shoppers and found four recurring themes: 1. Familial bonding (multiple generations and close friends) 2. Strategic planning . The great race 4. Mission accomplished But how do the four themes they came up with relate to one another? Thomas and Peters figured that all the traits when analyzed together showed one commonality. They wrote, â€Å"the traits are coalesced around a military metaphor, and is a bonding activity Shoppers prepare for the ritual by scanning Black Friday ads, and they map out th eir strategy. † (Sarkis 2011) In essence, the family is a type of team that scans adds, plans their route and potential purchases, executes their plans by buying products, and rejoices in their accomplishments.When all of these traits are analyzed individually, they mean little to main the main outcome, bonding. But when all the traits are looked at collectively, they all contribute to the overall success and goal of bonding. Besides giving us a breakdown of bonding activities, the analysis also shows how the average consumer plan for Black Friday. Just as Sarkis found themes that make up this military metaphor, Byun, professor of consumer affairs at Auburn University came up with her own theory on why people react the way they do on Black Friday. Crowds create a sense of competition — such as when hundreds of shoppers are rushing to collect marked-down goods — they generate a different feeling entirely. Competition creates what’s called hedonic shopping v alue, or a sense of enjoyment from the mere process of buying goods. At certain levels, consumers enjoy arousal and challenges during the shopping process. † (Khazan 2011) In essence what Byun is saying is consumers get more enjoyment because the crowds create an obstacle, which hinders the execution of the plans and preparations made. The crowds make getting what they want harder, which creates more value for the goods purchased.Just as Byun noted that crowds contribute to the Black Friday Craze, Kelly McGonigal, Ph. D. describes another factors that plays a big part in the â€Å"Black Friday frenzy†. Retailers, she notes, use innovative designs to lure customers into their stores and keep them there. McGonigal says â€Å"time pressure sales on limited products or scarce resources† triggers a negative physiological affect on the consumer. Scarcity for a certain commodity creates a sense of urgency to act now, a natural instinct to survive. This survival instinct can be related to hunting for some people.Black Friday is â€Å"hunting for women,† said Leisa Reinecke Flynn, professor of marketing and fashion merchandising at the University of Southern Mississippi. â€Å"It’s so much like deer hunting it’s hard to tell the two apart. † (Khazan 2011) Unfortunately, shopping on Black Friday is not motivated by survival instincts or a life in death situation. This paradox stimulates unusual behavior in consumers that creates disadvantages and potential dangers for those that are not necessarily into the hunt. The concept of Black Friday creates a â€Å"perfect storm† for consumer misbehavior.Misbehavior, as defined by Lennon, Johnson, and Lee is, â€Å"acts that violate accepted norms of conduct in consumption contexts. † (Lennon, Johnson, Lee, 2011) This compulsive behavior, or compulsive consumption, feeds off of the idea of scarcity. It induces people to act inappropriately harming others and often the mselves. â€Å"For many, if not most compulsive purchasers, buying is a reaction to stress or unpleasant situations. Compulsive consumption is a type of consumer behavior which is inappropriate, typically excessive, and clearly disruptive to the lives of other individuals. (Ronald, Thomas, and Raymond 1987) Both hunting and shopping hinge on long-standing traditions and generally involve pursuing a goal as a group. Whether the group actually hits its target is secondary to the fun of the chase. Hunting and shopping as shown above are very closely linked and motivated by the idea of scarcity. Just like there are limited deer in the forest, there are limited goods in the stores. The result is paradoxical in nature. People are fraudulently deceived into acting compulsively. (Herpen, Pieters and Zeelenberg 2005)Just as Ronald, Thomas, and Raymond concluded that compulsive behavior negatively affects the lives of others, Peter McGraw, Ph. D. drew a similar connection. He focuses more on social trends and pressures being the root of the problem. In The Link between Thanksgiving Gluttony and Black Friday Insanity, McGraw makes a connection between Black Friday shopping and Thanksgiving Dinner. He explores the idea that once a year, people will consume more calories in one meal, than the average person consumes on a normal day.The next day they wake up, or sometimes not sleeping at all, and go shopping for hours on end. (McGraw and Warner 2011) Dr. McGraw’s research shows us that in a short period of forty eights hour there is over consumption of food on Thanksgiving and the hyper consumption or shopping on Black Friday. McGraw believes that the cause of this phenomenon is social influence and pressure. He writes, â€Å"One of the hallmarks of psychological science is that we are influenced by the actions of others—often more so than we'd like to admit.Sometimes we're impelled to take positive actions, such as switching to reusable bags or cutting down on littering. Other times, social influence can be quite negative. When it comes to Thanksgiving and Black Friday, unfortunately, the influences skew more toward bad than good. † (McGraw and Warner 2011) In other words McGraw places responsibility of hyper consumption on social trends, pressures, and even perhaps familial rituals for the ever-popular Black Friday. Another concept of Black Friday is one of mutual benefit for both consumer and retailer.Consumers’ benefit from large discounts on all sorts of items including clothing, electronics, furniture, and literally any other commodity available on the market. Retailers’ benefit by getting out of the red zone, finally making a profit for the fiscal year. The opportunities available on Black Friday is what drove 212 million shoppers to stores during Black Friday weekend in 2011. (Wilson, 2010) Retailers experience surging sales during Black Friday and the days that follow. This monetary benefit is what drives t heir extensive promotion and deal offerings, further influencing the consumer’s willingness to partake in the shopping frenzy.In a society where a corporation or business’s main purpose is to grow profits for the benefit of its shareholders, a company’s number one purpose is to increase sales, in order to increase profits. According to a New York Times article written by Adam Davidson, approximately one fifth of retailer’s total annual sales are made during the holiday shopping season. (Davidson, 2011) In conclusion, we can see that shopping on Black Friday brings people together in one way or another. For some, it brings people together in a positive way.Families and friends are able to work as a team who plan, prepare and execute their plans to achieve their goals. For others, Black Friday shoppers experience the negative affects of other people’s behavior. There are also advantages and disadvantages for both the consumer and retailer. Consumers get amazingly cheap prices on products while retailers experience a massive surge in sales. However one may look at Black Friday, it is a day that cannot be ignored. It’s influence and popularity are ever growing and expanding. Reference Page Davidson, Adam. The Black Friday Effect: Let’s Stimulate the Economy with Inflation. † The New York Times, 16 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. Herpen, Erica van, Rik Pieters, and Marcel Zeelenberg (2005) ,†How Product Scarcity Impacts on Choice: Snob and Bandwagon Effects†, in Advances in Consumer Research Volume 32, eds. Geeta Menon and Akshay R. Rao, Advances in Consumer Research Volume 32 : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 623-624. Faber, J. Ronald, O’Guinn, C Thomas, and Krych, Raymond. (1987) â€Å"Compulsive Consumption†, in Advances in Consumer Research Volume 14, eds.Melanie Wallendorf and Paul Anderson, Advances in Consumer Research Volume 14: Association for Sonsumer Research, Pages: 132-135. McGonigal, Kelly, Ph. D. â€Å"The Science of Willpower. † Comments on â€Å"Black Friday Shopping: How Stores Use Psychology to Fill Your Cart† N. p. , 19 Nov. 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. . McGraw, Peter, Ph. D. , and Warner, Joel. â€Å"The Humor Code. † The Link between Thanksgiving Gluttony and Black Friday Insanity. N. p. , 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. . Ridgwar, Nicole, â€Å"Black Friday Sales Hit Record. † CNNMoney. Cable News Netwrok, 26 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. Sarkis, Stephanie, Ph. D. â€Å"Here, There, and Everywhere. † Black Friday: A Collective Consumption Ritual. N. p. , 20 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. . Thomas, Jane Boyd, and Peters, Cara. (2011) â€Å"An exploratory investigation of Black Friday consumption rituals†, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 39 Iss: 7, pp. 522 – 537 Wallendorf, M. , Arnould, E. â€Å"We gather together: consumption rituals of Thanksgiving Dayâ € , in Journal of Consumer Research, (1991) Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 13-31. Wilson, April. â€Å"By the Numbers: Black Friday Shoppers and Their Impact on the Economy. † The Luckie ReTink Tank. 23 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 Oct 2012. .

Modern innovation applications (Sony) Coursework

Modern innovation applications (Sony) - Coursework Example It is by means of new combinations of existing factors of production, embodied in new combinations of existing factors of production, embodied in new plants and, typically, new firms producing either new commodities, or by a new, i.e. as yet untried, method, or for a new market, or by buying means of production in a new market. What we, unscientifically, call economic progress means essentially putting productive resources to uses hitherto untried in practice, and withdrawing them from the uses they have served so far. This is what we call 'innovation.".Innovation is a premise prevailing in modern business with different concepts and labels. Now innovation is not only changing the appearance of things, its some thing deep inside the products, organizations and markets.This comparative study is aimed at reflecting innovation portfolio of modern business by discovering different facets of modern business including product management, implementing it as corporate philosophy and exercisi ng the whole process in different geographical markets differently.Business world has evolved from the phase where breaking the mould philosophy was the extreme success of innovation. Innovativeness is boundary less and all business empires try to battle their product, marketing, and market place issues in their own way, i.e., their innovative ways.This report covers the whole discussion and research is in different parts of the text content. Step by step coverage goes in a logical manner i.e., innovation defined, modern philosophy of innovation, and different perspectives of innovation in business world with various variables. Next part of report is grouped in three portions; seemingly separate three parts but discussing the oneness of innovation in three ways for one Business Empire. These three steps are Product innovation, Organization innovation and Geographical or market place innovation. Product selected is Walkman, company is Sony and geographical place is USA. In short the report covers innovative spheres applied by one company in developing product, in organization and it marketing the same product in a different market place. Report, though reflects various innovative approaches, and reviews the whole process from 'Open Innovation' concept. "The creative act is not an act of creation in the sense of the Old Testament. It does not create something out of nothing; it uncovers, selects, re-shuffles, combines, synthesizes already existing facts, ideas, faculties, skills. The more familiar the parts, the more striking the new whole. Man's knowledge of the changes of the tides and the phases of the moon is as old as his observation that apples fall to earth in the ripeness of time. Yet the combination of these and other equally familiar data in Newton's theory of gravity changed mankind's outlook on the world". (Koestler - 1964): Task 1: Case Example: Product, Process or Strategic Innovation: Case Example: In March 2007, Sony extended the Video Walkman brand by launching its first digital, flash-based video Walkman, the NW-A800. Walkman is a very popular Sony brand used to market its portable audio players, and is synonymously used to refer to the original Walkman portable personal stereo player and as a generic term for similar devices from other manufacturers. The original Walkman introduced a change in music listening habits, allowing people to carry their own choice of music with them. The original Walkman was released in 1979 as the Walkman in Japan and Soundabout abroad. The device was created by audio division engineer Nobutoshi Kihara for Sony co-chairman Morita, who wanted to be able to listen to operas during his frequent transpacific plane trips. (Hormby) Morita hated the Walkman name so much that he asked it to be changed. But he was told by junior executives that a promotion campaign had