Serbia: Interest groups in an unconsolidated pluralist democracy

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1719
• Published date: 01 May 2019
• Date: 01 May 2019

SPECIAL ISSUE PAPER

Serbia: Interest groups in an unconsolidated

pluralist democracy

Slaviša Orlović

Faculty of Political Sciences, University of

Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

Correspondence

Slaviša Orlović, Faculty of Political Sciences,

University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia.

Email: slavisa.orlovic@fpn.bg.ac.rs

Like Serbian politics in general, informal ways of conducting political business also

characterize the country's contemporary interest group system. This is largely due

to decades of authoritarian rule and less than 30 years' experience with pluralist

democracy. Added to this, the period following the end of socialist Yugoslavia, partic-

ularly the authoritarian rule of Slobodan Miloševićand Serbia's involvement in war,

undermined the development of a pluralist group system. Despite these setbacks,

and in the face of continuing constraints, several elements of a modern group system

have begun to emerge. This development has contributed to the advancement of

Serbia's brand of majoritarian democracy.

1|INTRODUCTION

The concept of an interest group is little understood in Serbia, and thus

the term is not in common use. Nevertheless, group activity has been

a significant aspect of Serbia's political experience in the past and

remains so today. Yet, as in the past, the contemporary group system

includes only a small segment of the population. So despite several

advances since the years of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugosla-

via (SFRY), several constraints on group activity continue to exist. In

addition, there are legacies from the past including a major role for

unofficial interests and power group using the advocacy methods they

have always used—personal contacts, often involving corruption.

Given this combination of circumstances, the question posed in

this article is: “to what extent are interest groups included in the public

policy‐making process?”Answering this question is challenging. This is

because there is no existing research directly on Serbian interest

groups. Plus, there is difficulty in conducting survey research in a

country where policy‐makers still act in a clandestine way and many

are suspicious of academics seeking information on political activity,

particularly on power relationships.

Nevertheless, by drawing on both secondary and one original

source, we can provide a holistic study of Serbia's group system. The

secondary sources include work on Serbian history and culture and

some work on civil society groups and on nongovernmental organiza-

tions (NGOs). Of the latter is a recent study on Serbian civil society

groups (Orlović, 2015, as cited in Fink‐Hafner, 2015). This study also

includes a chapter on the women's movement in Croatia, Serbia, and

Slovenia (Siročić, 2015, as cited in Fink‐Hafner, 2015). The original

source for this article was a small survey as explained in section 5.5

and Box 3 of the introductory article to this volume. Those

interviewed included various people involved in or who observe the

political process. Those interviewed are listed at the end of this article.

The analysis begins by outlining the fundamentals of group activ-

ity in Serbia. Next is a review of the role of interest groups in Serbia's

development. This is followed by consideration of the contemporary

political environment of group activity. Then, three sections cover

the range of groups operating in contemporary Serbia, the strategies

and tactics they use, and the power dynamics of group activity. Next

comes an assessment of the extent to which interest groups have

aided the advancement of Serbian democracy. The conclusion revisits

the chapter's theme.

2|THE FUNDAMENTALS OF INTEREST

GROUP ACTIVITY IN SERBIA

As an interest group system transitioning from authoritarianism to

pluralist democracy, Serbia manifests many of the characteristics of

such systems. It is, in fact, a hybrid combining many legacies of past

ways they operate side by side with the development of new tech-

niques of group activity.

To provide a foundation for the various aspects of group activity,

this section outlines the basic characteristics of the country's group

system. Today, six characteristics are particularly important: the per-

sistence of informal ways, a negative attitude to interest groups, a

DOI: 10.1002/pa.1719

J Public Affairs. 2019;19:e1719.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1719

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa 1of13