Populism and Democracy – elements of Populism in the Public Opinion in Serbia

Lutovac, Zoran (2018) Populism and Democracy – elements of Populism in the Public Opinion in Serbia. In: Mediji, kultura i umetnost u doba populizma. Institut za pozorište, film, radio i televiziju, Fakultet dramskih umetnosti : Clio, Beograd, pp. 41-60. ISBN 978-86-82101-72-7

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Abstract

In this paper, populism is regarded as a kind of ideological map that facilitates to the citizens their coping in the political space, as well as a “thin-centered ideology” which has at his center the idea that politics should be a reflection of the will of the people, the idea that a clean and moral nation confronts a corrupt elite and “out groups”, “out groups” which actions endanger or impair the rights and values of the nation. The paper focuses on some fundamental theoretical considerations on populism and empirical determination of the elements of populism in the public opinion in Serbia. Based on opinion polls in Serbia it has been shown what is the relationship of citizens to the people, political elites, democracy and its institutions, as well as the attitude towards “out groups”. Empirical research conducted in Serbia in 2017 confirms the hypothesis that the gap between citizens and their elected representatives is deep, and it marks also that conventional politics increasingly faces the difficulties to reach citizens, and that lack of trust in political parties is generated in all spheres of representative democracy. In the political life, “out groups” are instrumentally ranked by political actors according to the necessities of the moment, and the empirical research of attitudes shows that they are in the same way as “out groups experienced by the citizens.

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