https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0661-4364
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ABSTRACT
Recent literature suggests that the competitive authoritarian regimes emerging in the twenty-first century are more subtle and nuanced in comparison to the old regimes of the 1990s. Aiming to understand these differences in greater depth, this article explores how new competitive authoritarian regimes react to mass protests. The article focuses on the case of Serbia, a country where protests have been widespread both during the old regime of the 1990s and the current regime. Analysing five protests waves in the past decade, we were able to identify three dominant strategic interactions of the regime with the protests, all of which contrast significantly with those employed by the old regime. First, in contrast to protest bans and oppression mechanisms used by the old regime, the new regime tends to allow, and strategically ignore protests. Second, while in the past police violence was widespread, there is an apparent police absence from the protests nowadays. Finally, there is a clear difference in the ways the two regimes portray the “Others”. While in the 1990s the international enemies were clearly identified and explicitly evoked, the new regime tends to make vague and contradictory claims about diverse but unspecific international and regional enemies behind protests.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Bounce and Walnih, Defeating Dictators.
2 Vladisavljević, “Popular Protest in Authoritarian Regimes.”
3 Levitsky and Way, “The New Competitive Authoritarianism.”
4 Spoerri, Engineering Revolution.
5 De Wilde, “Representative Claims Analysis.”
6 Ceka, “Macedonia: A New Beginning?”; Heckert, “Protests Against the Law on Religious Freedom in Montenegro.”
7 Bishara, “The Politics of Ignoring.”
8 Yuen and Cheng, “Neither Repression Nor Concession?”
9 Freedom House, Nations in Transit 2022.
10 Schedler, “The Politics of Uncertainty.”
11 Merkel, “Embedded and Defective Democracies.”
12 Levitsky and Way, Competitive Authoritarianism, 5.
13 Levitsky and Way, “The New Competitive Authoritarianism,” 60.
14 Kmezić and Bieber, The Crisis of Democracy in the Western Balkans.
15 Diamond, “Democratic Regression in Comparative Perspective.”
16 Handlin, “Observing Incumbent Abuses.”
17 Dolenec, “Democratic Institutions and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Europe.”
18 Ibid.
19 Levitsky and Way, “The New Competitive Authoritarianism.”
20 Bieber, “Patterns of Competitive Authoritarianism.”
21 Kapidžić, “The Rise of Illiberal Politics in Southeast Europe.”
22 Bieber, “Patterns of Competitive Authoritarianism,” 340.
23 Ibid., 343.
24 Hall and Ambrosio, “Authoritarian Learning.”
25 Jackson, “The Role of External Factors in Advancing Non-Liberal Democratic Forms of Political Rule.”
26 Hall and Ambrosio, “Authoritarian Learning.”
27 Gillardi, “Who Learns from What in Policy Diffusion Processes?”
28 Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires.
29 Tarrow, Power in Movement.
30 Robertson, The Politics of Protests in Hybrid Regimes.
31 Ozen and Dogu, “Mobilizing in a Hybrid Political System.”
32 Robertson, The Politics of Protests in Hybrid Regimes, 171.
33 Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires; Bishara, “The Politics of Ignoring.”
34 Yuen and Cheng, “Neither Repression Nor Concession?” 613.
35 Levitsky and Way, Competitive Authoritarianism, 104–13.
36 Castaldo, “Back to Competitive Authoritarianism?”
37 Bieber, “Patterns of Competitive Authoritarianism”; Dolenec, Democratic Institutions and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Europe.
38 Spasojević, “Two and a Half Crises.”
39 Stojić, Party Responses to the EU in the Western Balkan.
40 Spasojević, “Two and a Half Crises.”
41 OSCE, Parliamentary elections in Serbia.
42 CRTA, Parliamentary Elections 2020.
43 Freedom House, Nations in Transit 2022.
44 V-Dem, Democracy Report 2022.
45 Hellmeier et al., “State of the World 2020.”
46 Levitsky and Way, “The New Competitive Authoritarianism,” 59–60.
47 Bochsler and Juon, “Authoritarian Footprints in Central and Eastern Europe.”
48 Vuković, “Rule of Law.”
49 Castaldo, “Back to Competitive Authoritarianism?”
50 Milojević and Krstić, “Hierarchy of Influences on Transitional Journalism.”
51 Lončar, “Civil Society in Serbia.”
52 Bieber, “Patterns of Competitive Authoritarianism,” 345.
53 Stojić, Party Responses to the EU in the Western Balkan; Dolenec, Democratic Institutions and Authoritarian Rule in Southeast Europe.
54 Levitsky and Way, Competitive Authoritarianism.
55 Spoerri, Engineering Revolution, 32–3.
56 Vladisavljević, “Competitive Authoritarianism and Popular Protest,” 42.
57 Ibid., 43.
58 Zakon o javnom okupljanju, Article 12.
59 Ibid., Article 13.
60 Forbrig and Demeš, Reclaiming Democracy.
61 Dobson, The Dictator’s Learning Curve.
62 Kleut and Milojević, “Framing Protest in Online News and Readers’ Comments.”
63 Gordy, The Culture of Power; Spasić, “Civil Society in Serbia.”
64 Spasojević, “Populists’s Influence on the State of Democracy.”
65 Ibid.
66 Subotić, “Stories States Tell.”
67 Levitsky and Way, “The New Competitive Authoritarianism”; Bieber, “Patterns of Competitive Authoritarianism.”
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Notes on contributors
Dušan Spasojević
Dr Dušan Spasojević is an associate professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade. His main fields of interest are political parties, civil society and the post-communist democratization process. Spasojević is a member of the steering board of the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability (CRTA).
Jelena Lončar
Dr Jelena Lončar is an assistant professor at the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Political Sciences. She holds a PhD in Politics from the University of York, UK. Her research interests include political representation, ethnic politics and civil society. In recent years, her research has focused on the performance of political representation and the performativity of representative claims.