International—national Linkages and Political Processes in Yugoslavia

Abstract

In comparative politics generally, comparative foreign policy, and communist studies as well, the study of international—national linkages focused traditionally on states that were largely penetrated by a single external source. For these states it was generally assumed the international—national linkage was the key to explaining internal political development. Dependency theorists in their attempts to explain the internal evolution of Latin American states, for instance, adopted such a focus. The basic satellite model which served students of communist systems well for many years was also of this genre. In that model all sources of external influence save one, even those emanating from other satellites, were excluded. One could predict actions within a state by focusing on decisions taken elsewhere, outside the state, in this instance in Moscow. Indeed, taken to its logical conclusion, the satellite imagery was one in which the putative nation-state was merely another instance of a traditional political institution having been transformed into a transmission belt, that is, into a mechanism for the downward communication of commands.