THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM OF MONTENEGRO
THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM OF MONTENEGRO

Author(s): Veselin Pavićević
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Governance, Government/Political systems, Electoral systems
Published by: CEDET Centar za demokratsku tranziciju
Keywords: Proportional method; electoral census; categorical voting; affirmative action; electoral district geometry; price of seat
Summary/Abstract: At a time when “history rushes” (Dahrendorf) there is, in Montenegro, a permanent interchange of ascents and demises in the maturing of the democratic culture of its people, while hope and anxiety alternate back and forth for its politics and its formation as a nation-state. Relations among the sharply opposed political groups within this process will be determined by the ability and strength of institutions to produce and reproduce democratic social relations. Only well-organized, democratic institutions can manage to suppress the authoritarian and disfunctional character of a political order traditionally characterized by charismatic power and its people’s subservient mentality. This is all the more so, bearing in mind that support for the proclaimed democratic principles in Montenegro is based on a short and incomplete insight into such experience. In addition, the new democratic order has had a very short history and a shallow “reservoir of legitimacy” (Mishler & Rose). Furthermore, the new regime does not even have a sufficient degree of negative tolerance that should have resulted from the public rejection of the old totalitarian regime. If it is true that in the process of constructing its culture “all nations follow the same historical model” (Duverger), then it is certain that Montenegro too will develop a democratic electoral system and elections as stable institutions. In this respect, there is the already acquired encouraging experience that without wider support and acceptance of the basic resolutions in electoral legislation, which themselves pertain to the democratic standards established by the Copenhagen documents of the OEBS from 1990, the elections for representative authority cannot be well organized and efficiently conducted.

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