Nikola Jović
THE IDEOLOGICAL INCONGRUENCE OF NEW POLITICAL PARTIES AND ORGANIZATIONS: CASE STUDY “MOVEMENT OF FREE CITIZENS” AND “DO NOT LET BELGRADE D(R)OWN”
The main subjects of this article are new political parties and organizations and their ideological incongruence as setbacks for root in society and institutionalization. The party system in Serbia has changed in aspects of stability and relevance of political parties. New instability was produced by tendencies of the predominance of one party (Serbian Progressive Party) and losing position of old political parties through splitting, losing of resources and capacities, intraparty instability, etc. Challenges for old political parties are coming from new political parties and organizations based on new and alternative politics. New political parties have many problems with institutionalization in the party system. Some of the problems are in the impossibility to construct distinctive ideological frames which would be recognized by citizens and voters. The problem of the ideological incongruence of new parties is identified also in the relationship between leadership and membership of parties. In this paper, we deal with “Movement of Free Citizens” (MFC) and “Don’t Let Belgrade D(r)own” (DLBD) as new political actors. The main goal of the research is to identify and explain ideological incongruence in the above-mentioned political organizations.
Personal or Party Electoral Campaigns in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Kosovo* - Empirical Findings
The main hypothesis of this paper is that candidates who run for elections - run extremely party-oriented campaigns, not personal ones. We test this hypothesis with the help of empirical research (Comparative Candidate Survey), which was conducted in 2015. In the survey, 656 (268 - Serbia, 95 - Bosnia and Herzegovina, 136 - Montenegro and 157 - Kosovo*) respondents were interviewed. The electoral institution that is associated most strongly with the theme of our research is the design of the electoral ballots. In terms of the closure form of the list (blocked lists - Serbia and Montenegro), it can be said that the candidates who are on the electoral list are discouraged from leading personal campaigns and encouraged to direct activities during the election period at promoting the party and party leader. However, in countries with personal voting (not blocked lists - Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo*), the situation is the same. Through insight into the results of comparative research, we see that party campaigns are also dominant in systems with personalised ballots. Candidates for members of parliament only run party-based campaigns. The results of the research on the attitudes and actions of candidates for members of parliament in the last election campaign confirm this tendency. The influence of the party leader, the leadership campaign, obedience and loyalty to the leader of the party, and good relations with him/her are much more important for the candidates than contact with the voters and leading personal campaigns.
