Philosophical Reflections on the Social Bond in Tito’s Yugoslavia: Žižek’s Critique of Ideological Unity and the Principle of Agapè

Abstract

This article written as a philosophical dissertation examines the concept of social bond as a central question of collective existence, using Tito’s socialism as its historical and ideological framework. It analyzes how Yugoslav socialism sought to produce unity through the political ideal of “Brotherhood and Unity,” aiming to establish an inclusive social bond as the foundation of its social order. However, as Slavoj Žižek demonstrates, this ideology of fraternity used a mechanism of exclusion and assimilation that erased singularity and transformed the idea of inclusion into conformity. The study explores Žižek’s philosophical critique of this socialist model of cohesion and his redefinition of the authentic social bond through the concept of agapè, a universal and unconditional love that respects differences rather than suppressing them. Through Žižek’s reading of Christian love and its political implications, the article offers the only possible foundation for a genuine social bond, one that unites individuals without abolishing their singularity. By contrasting the ideological illusion of unity in Tito’s socialism with the inclusive universality of agapè, this study seeks to clarify the philosophical necessity of an ethics of love as the true principle of political and human community.