No Democracy Inside the Political Parties
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The political parties in Serbia lack the democratic principles of in-the-party work, which presents risks to the process of democratization of society and the state they govern, estimate experts in the field of political sciences at the round-table discussion held at the Social Sciences Institute, in Belgrade.
The discussion was organized on the occasion of coming out of print of Democracy In the Political Parties in Serbia, prepared by a group of professors from Belgrade University and associates of the Social Sciences Institute, in cooperation with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. The debate concluded that the creation of democratic state requires internal democratization of political parties in Serbia, establishment of democracy in their internal structures and to implement those principles in everyday practice. The main “barriers” to the development of democracy in the political parties are the restricted freedom of expression of their membership base and the restricted right to establish factions, but also the manner of nomination of candidates for internal party elections and offices, as well as the unrestricted power of the leaders and the executive bodies. Vukasin Pavlovic, professor at the School of Political Sciences believes that the political parties are, indeed, the “Achiles Heel” of democracy. He added that unless the political parties raise their own democratic capacity, there will be no better government, parliament or judiciary, administration, i.e. no quality state and democracy. Pavlovic listed the elections for political party offices and functions, restriction of terms in office and introduction of principle of rotation, level of criticism in internal debate, responsibility of leadership for electoral and other failures, the level of tolerance for other opinions and factions, transparency of financing, the role of experts’ bodies and possibility of internal and local branches’ initiatives as possible criteria to measure internal democratic levels in the political parties. According to Slavisa Orlovic from the same Faculty, political parties in Serbia are usually recognized through their leadership, not political programme and platform, while the true political power sits with the internal structures where a group of people – the party oligarchy, makes the main political decisions and redistributes power. |
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