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Voters, Parties, Elections – How to Democratize Political Parties in Montenegro and Serbia?

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Voters, Parties, Elections – How to Democratize Political Parties in Montenegro and Serbia? VOTERS, PARTIES, ELECTIONS – HOW TO DEMOCRATIZE POLITICAL PARTIES IN MONTENEGRO AND SERBIA? VOTERS, PARTIES, ELECTIONS – HOW TO DEMOCRATIZE POLITICAL PARTIES IN MONTENEGRO AND SERBIA? Publisher: Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Belgrade Center for monitoring and research - CeMI Podgorica For Publisher: Dragan Simić Zlatko Vujović Urednici: Zoran Stojiljković Dušan Spasojević Reviewers: Vukašin Pavlović Đorđe Vuković Layout and printing: Čigoja štampa Circulation: 300 ISBN: Disclaimer: The RRPP promotes social science research in the Western Balkans (Albania, Bo- snia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia). Social science resear- ch aids in the understanding of the specific reform needs of countries in the region and in identifying the long-term implications of policy choices. Researchers receive support through research grants, methodological and thematic trainings as well as opportunities for regional and international networking and mentoring. The RRPP is coordinated and operated by the Interfaculty Institute for Central and Eastern Europe (IICEE) at the University of Fribourg (Swit- zerland). The programme is fully funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Coopera- tion (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily repre- sent opinions of the SDC and the University of Fribourg. Editors Zoran Stojiljković Dušan Spasojević VOTERS, PARTIES, ELECTIONS – HOW TO DEMOCRATIZE POLITICAL PARTIES IN MONTENEGRO AND SERBIA? Beograd, Podgorica 2016 Theoretical framework CONTENTS: Introduction. 7 Chapter 1 ThEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ELECTORAL SYSTEMS beTWeeN PARTY AND peRSONAL RepRESENTATION Milan.Jovanović. 11 THE INFLUENCE OF PREFERENTIAL VOTING ON INTRA-PARTY DEMOCRACY Vladimir.Goati . 33 Chapter 2 INFLUENCE OF ELECTORAL SYSTEMS ON POLITICAL PARTIES AND VOTERS IN MONTENEGRO AND SERBIA THE IMPACT OF peRSONALIZATION OF ELECTORAL SYSTEM ON POLITICAL PARTIES – THE CASE OF MONTENEGRO Zlatko.Vujović. 49 THE INFLUENCE OF ELECTORAL SYSTEM ON CANDIDATES’ ELECTION CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES AND THE WORK OF MeMbeRS OF PARLIAMENT Jelena.Lončar.and.Boban.Stojanović. 69 THE INFLUENCE OF THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM ON PERCepTIONS AND BEHAVIOR OF VOTERS IN SeRBIA Dušan.Spasojević.and.Vojislav.Mihailović. 87 Chapter 3 ELECTORAL SYSTEMS AND INTRA-PARTY RELATIONS IN MONTENEGRO AND SERBIA IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE INTRAPARTY DeMOCRACY IN SeRBIA AND MONTENEGRO Nikoleta.Tomović.and.Despot.Kovačević. 105 5 Voters, parties, elections – How to democratize political parties in Montenegro and Serbia? ELECTORAL SYSTEM AND INTRA-PARTY ReLATIONS IN SeRBIA AND MONTENEGRO Srđan.Darmanović.and.Zoran.Stojiljković. 125 ReFERENCES . 143 CONTRIBUTORS . 151 6 Theoretical framework INTRODUCTION This study presents the main findings of the two-year project ’Balkan Electoral Comparative Study: Impact of Personal Vote on Internal Party Democracy’ . The main objective of this research was to investigate the influence of electoral sys- tems – understood as the set of laws and party rules regulating electoral compe- tition between and within parties – on intra-party democracy . The project was supported by the RRPP – Regional Research Promotion Programme for social science research in the Western Balkans . This comparative study analyzes data from two similar countries – Montene- gro and Serbia that share not only the electoral system (party-list proportional representation system that does not allow voters to vote directly for candidates or to rank them) but also the political legacies and the cultural value patterns . Research project “Balkan Electoral Comparative Study: Impact of Personal Vote on Internal Party Democracy” also encompasses two case studies that present results from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, countries that introduced preferential voting . The above mentioned case studies investigate whether pref- erential voting produces different outcomes – such as intra-party competitive- ness and democratization, and closer ties between citizens and the political elite . Given that our research question focuses on institutional design of the political and electoral system, the study is also strongly oriented towards the policy field . Intra-party relations and the predominant role of party leaders is the main ob- stacle for further democratization of ex-Yugoslavia societies . Focusing on party leaders and identification with them weakens the ties between voters and their elected representatives, and diminishes the importance of party electoral mani- festoes and programmatic platforms . We argue that all of these lead to discre- tional decision-making in politics, the absence of political accountability, and consequently citizens becoming apathetic observers . For all the reasons stated 7 Birači, partije i izbori – kako demokratizovati partije u Crnoj Gori i Srbiji? above, our study tackles the most important question for our societies – is the intra-party democratization a pre-condition for democratization of our coun- tries? And what is the role of us – researchers with multi-year experience in re- search projects and working groups for the electoral system reform, in reversing these negative trends, at least partially? This book is structured as follows: Chapter 1 describes the research theoreti- cal framework that examines advantages and shortcomings of party and per- sonal representation (articles by Milan Jovanović i Vladimir Goati) . Chapter 2 presents in detail two empirical studies – the Comparative Candidate Study conducted during 2015 and public opinion surveys conducted in 2016 that ad- dress: (1) the impact of electoral system on candidates running for national par- liamentary elections and their conduct within the party and towards the voters; and (2) the impact of electoral system on voting behaviors . The case study of Montenegro is presented by Zlatko Vujović, while the case study of Serbia is an- alyzed in articles by: Jelena Lončar and Boban Stojanović; and Dušan Spasojević and Vojislav Mihailović . Finally, the Chapter 3 provides comparative analysis – the first article by Nikoleta Tomovic and Despot Kovačević compares the lev- els of intra-party democracy in Serbia and Montenegro; and second article by Srdjan Darmanović and Zoran Stojiljković compares research findings of the entire study . We hope that the current study will deepen the knowledge and understanding of the complexity and importance of intra-party democracy . We are aware that the solution to the problem does not lie solely in the change of institutional de- sign (which is just one determinant), but that power relations need to be taken into account too . However, our contribution to the debate on the reform of the electoral system (in both states) is in the development of actionable recommen- dations that are evidence-based and drawn from the large comparative studies . We hope that the current study with actionable recommendations will allow for further development of policies, and thus show the applicability of social and political sciences . 8 Milan Jovanović Vladimir Goati Chapter 1 Theoretical framework Milan Jovanović Faculty of Political Sciences University of Belgrade ELECTORAL SYSTEMS BETWEEN PARTY AND PERSONAL REPRESENTATION The last two decades in political science have been marked by strong expansion of electoral studies . It is, however, obvious that one segment of electoral studies remained beyond the researchers’ focus: the character of representation . Does an electoral system represent only parties as the key political actors mediating between voters and political institutions – like parliament and government – or this representation enables personalization as well: this issue has been increas- ingly occupying psephologists’ attention . This aspect of political representation has remained in the shadow due to nu- merous factors . Here we shall emphasize the two crucial ones . The first one is the general domination of parties – from the sphere of elections and politics, they became an actor who influences, guides, controls almost all relations in the society . The aspiration for general domination required both control within the parties and control of their organized action in the state institutions . Such posi- tion required dominance first in the candidacy process and, subsequently, in se- lection of those who would sit in the parliamentary benches . The second factor is the expansion of proportional representation systems as a reply to the aspiration for a more even representation of various parts of society in the representative body . These systems assumed party lists, which very quickly became a mecha- nism for suppression of personalization of elections into the background . The genesis of electoral systems shows that this has not always been the case . The pendulum has generally gone far to the party representation side . The con- sequences are obvious . All societies with systematically disabled personal-based elections formed an actual low-scale movement for personalization of elections, while the requests for returning the pendulum to the other side or at least to equilibrium are increasingly emphasized and corroborated . 11 Voters, parties, elections – How to democratize political parties in Montenegro and Serbia? We shall present and analyze virtues and flaws of various forms of party and personal representation, in order to prove that these principles are not antithet- ical but complementary . A balanced design of electoral system in combining
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