Odnos građanki i građana prema vlasti i političkom sistemu u Srbiji
THE ATTITUDE OF CITIZENS TOWARDS THE GOVERNMENT AND THE POLITICAL SYSTEM IN SERBIA

Author(s): Zoran Lutovac
Subject(s): Politics, Political behavior, Sociology of Politics, Politics and Identity
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: citizens; government; political system; legitimacy; empirics
Summary/Abstract: This paper uses empirical findings and political analysis to determine the extent to which the government and political system in Serbia are legitimate. Aside from elections, which are the most authoritative in determining the strength of this support, it is important to determine the way in which citizens view this beyond campaigning and electoral process itself. Empirical research of this kind is particularly important in societies where elections cannot be described as completely free and fair, media freedom is limited, the rule of law is not developed, and the electoral process itself is under pressure. One of the most important findings of the empirical research is that only 8.6% of citizens believe that the political system in Serbia allows citizens to influence the actions of the government. Only 19% believe that our political system allows all social groups to be treated fairly. The low level of trust in the Assembly, the government and the judiciary is another indicator of the low level of legitimacy of the political system. The fact that the main sources of information are not available to citizens, i.e. that they are under the influence and control of the government, certainly affects the fact that the conditions for fair and free elections are completely limited, which is confirmed by the research results showing that three-quarters of the citizens believe that there are no equal opportunities for all parties to communicate their ideas and political programs to citizens. Another important finding of this research is the existence of a large discrepancy between the election results and the citizens’ attitudes towards the authorities and their results. One of the explanations for this could be that the election results do not reflect the actual mood of the citizens of Serbia, because the elections are not held under democratic conditions.

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