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Under the shadow of economic globalisation, reperipherialisation37 and economic retrogression, an essential characteristic of the pre-Second-World-War ancien régimethe reproduction of state power through clientilestic networks twined along primordial loyalties38came to blend organically with the features of a fragmented (socialist) 'self-management' bureaucracy (Schierup 1990). As the economic crisis deepened during the 1980s, local political elites in the republics started to openly legitimise their rule in ethnic terms and with reference to national tradition.

Economic stabilisation measures and market reforms are obviously essential, but may if guided by dogmatic propositions, and indiscriminately employedcontribute to increased poverty, inequality and unemployment. This may exacerbate the causes of violence unless complementary measures are also taken. Moreover, in many cases, stipulated conditions cannot be met without immediate and substantial assistance from the outside. If these needs are not realised, conditionality might turn out to be highly counterproductive (Bojicic et al.

They provoke major disturbances both at the international level (the new world disorder) and at the local level (ethnic conflicts). The disorder of 'fragmegration' fosters major shifts in the conceptions people have of themselves and of their environment, which in turn provokes shifts in their loyalties, including their identification with communities redefined in exclusionary ethno-national terms. 42 But the exclusionary nationalism of the new Page 16 periphery and globalising markets are, as argued by Ivekovic * (Chapter 3 in this volume), strange bed-fellows and their temporary alliance against state socialism has now lost its initial rationale.