Demokratie auf dem Abstellgleis? Eine Bestandsaufnahme des serbischen Parteien- systems nach der Parlamentswahl 2020

Abstract

Serbia’s 2020 parliamentary election, held amid a pandemic and an opposition boycott, received an unusual amount of international attention. It marked the temporary nadir of Serbia’s democratic development after the fall of the autocrat Slobodan Milošević and, at the same time, the zenith of the rise of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) under Aleksandar Vučić. In the twenty years in between, various governments faced numerous domestic and external challenges that have hampered sustainable democratization of the state, of parties, and society. From candidate selection to the management and control of elections as well as the formation of parliamentary parties, ubiquitous party potentates control political decision-making in Serbia. The explanation for supposed paradoxes, such as the population’s low confidence in political parties while party membership is high, lies in the close-meshed connections between state institutions, businesses, and the ruling parties. The population’s hopes for democratic change rest less in the divided opposition parties than in social and civic organizations.