OSOBENOSTI TRANZICIJE U SRBIJI I CRNOJ GORI
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRANSITION IN SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO

Author(s): Srđan Darmanović
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Governance, Government/Political systems, Electoral systems, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010), Post-Communist Transformation
Published by: CEDET Centar za demokratsku tranziciju
Keywords: authoritarian regime; transition; models of transition; transaction; collapse; electoral democracy; Serbia and Montenegro; consolidation
Summary/Abstract: Serbia and Montenegro are among the most difficult and complicated transition cases in the post-communist world. The reason for this is the particularly pronounced problem of statehood and the crisis of the former SFRY, which resulted in the outbreak of war. The war favored the establishment of a new non-democratic regime upon exiting the communist system. Thus, in Serbia and Montenegro, we can talk about not one but two transitions. The first, negative transition ("non-transition"), which established a non-democratic regime with pronounced characteristics of personal power ("Caesarism", "pseudo-democracy") in Serbia after leaving the communist system, and in Montenegro also a regime of monopoly power, but led by a large authoritarian party that was managed in an oligarchic manner. The negative transition in Serbia was carried out by a kind of reverse transaction model. in countries where the reformists within the ruling party prevailed over the conservatives and began the liberalization of the regime, in Serbia the party stalwarts took the upper hand in the internal party struggle and prevented a positive transition. In Montenegro, the first negative transition began with the collapse of the old party elite, but also not in favor of the party reformists, but in favor of the new populist leadership. The second transition began in Montenegro in 1997 with a split within the ruling party party reformists prevailed and then made an (anti-Milosevic) pact with the opposition. In Serbia, the second transition began with the collapse of the authoritarian regime on October 5, 2000. Both countries have since entered the period of electoral democracy, but with elements of instability that hinder full democratic consolidation.

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