„OPASNI (NEŽELJENI) DRUGI” I POPULIZAM U SRBIJI
„OUT- GROUPS“ AND POPULISM IN SERBIA

Author(s): Zoran Lutovac, Ksenija Marković
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Political Theory, Sociology of Politics
Published by: Институт друштвених наука
Keywords: Populism; “Out-groups”; Serbia; Practice; Defects of Democracy; Public Opinion Research
Summary/Abstract: The subject of this work is the attitude to the others (out-groups, dangerous, unwanted others) as a very important segment of populism, whether it is a right or a left-wing populism, radical or mainstream populism, populism as a dominant or marginal phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to show on the case of Serbia the attitude towards dangerous others as a part of a populist political practice and populism as a thin-centred ideology, on the one hand, and to determine the feedback reaction of the people (citizens) towards dangerous others, on the basis of opinion polls, on the other side. The structure of the paper is the determination of the theoretical framework, the classification of the basic characteristics of the populism and dangerous others in Serbia, political practice and the correlation of populism and democracy defects in it, and the attitude of citizens towards dangerous others through the prism of empirical research. There are no many works in Serbia on populism in general, nor the consideration of the role of dangerous others in the context of populist practices and developing of the elements of thin-centred ideology. This study is a first step towards a systematic and, hopefully, regular research on dangerous others in the context of populism phenomena and the effects of its presence in society. Public Opinion Research (June-July 2017) assumes that, since the 90-ies of XX century, there is a continuity of the presence of dangerous others in Serbian public discourse (minorities, NATO). Dangerous others are ranked instrumentally by political elites according to the necessities of the moment - sometimes in the spotlights are Americans, sometimes NATO, and sometimes Croats, Bosnians or Albanians: it has been proven by an empirical determination of respondent's attitude that even the citizens feel about them as they are others. Although it can not be classified in the category of dangerous others, the ruling elite thus effectively treat the elite of the former regime and tycoons in that way. Apart from them, as dangerous others are treated all those who are willing to criticize the government and to oppose to the policy of a man who controls not only the ruling coalition, but almost all government, and even independent institutions, state media and the tabloids, so we can say that the antilpluralism is the essential characteristic of populism in Serbia today.

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