FACULTY OF LAW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE CENTER FOR PUBLISHING AND INFORMING Edition MONOGRAPHS ? ? ? ? 32 ? ? ? ? Prof. Dr. Dragica Vujadinović Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade SERBIA IN THE MAELSTROM OF POLITICAL CHANGES Publisher Th e Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade Center for Publishing and Informing For the Publisher Prof. Dr. Mirko Vasiljević, Dean Editor Prof. Dr. Jovica Trkulja Head of the Center for Publishing and Informing Reviewers Prof. Dr. Hauke Brunkhorst Prof. Dr. Vladimir Goati Proof-reading Timothy Johnston Cover Design Pavle Borovac Prepress and Printing Dosije Studio, Belgrade ISBN 978-86-7630-191-1 Print-run 300 copies © Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade, 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. www.ius.bg.ac.rs Dragica Vujadinović SERBIA IN THE MAELSTROM OF POLITICAL CHANGES Belgrade, 2009 Prof. Dr. Hauke Brunkhorst Th is is an excellent book which I quite strongly appreciate. It is a must for everyone who wants to understand what is going on in Serbia today, as “maelstrom” is the right metaphor to use. Whatever one does, they go dee- per into the abyss. Th ere is, as Dragica Vujadinovic shows, no alternative to Europe. Yet, once you head towards Europe, you lose the elections at home. Th ere is no alternative to human rights and democracy but for the time being democracy does not seem willing to take rights seriously. Still, once we take rights seriously without democratic legitimation and concretization, then rights will quickly become a mere means of arbitrary hegemonic power. Th is book is so striking because it does not stand still with general analy- sis but goes into the legal and political details of a world region which is more exemplary for globalization than western countries like to acknowledge. Bril- liantly, Professor Vujadinovic shows how small the road of democracy is and that to the left and the right of the road all the dangers of authoritarianism are to be found. But there is no alternative. We must go ahead to an unknown future which eventually will be democratic and legal. With this great book there is some light visible at the end of the tunnel. * * * Prof. Dr. Vladimir Goati Th e book Serbia in the Maelstrom of Political Changes represents an im- portant contribution to the understanding of social and political changes in contemporary Serbia. Th is book off ers a well articulated and comprehensive explanation of both the diffi cult and contradictory processes of the internal democratization of Serbia and its international and European integration. Th is extraordinary analysis of social and political transformations aft er the fall of the Milošević regime represents, according to our opinion, literature that is unavoidable to those who want to achieve a deeper insight into actual events in Serbia. Th e additional value of this book is that it off ers useful methodological instruments for future research, as Serbia represents a very unique societal and political entity to which certain standard instruments of analysis have not been fully applicable. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction. 7 1. Serbia at the Crossroads of Strategic Orientation – Th e Victory of the Pro-European and Pro-Reform Option? . 11 2. What is the Rational National and State Interest of Contemporary Serbia? . 35 3. Th e Ethnifi cation of Politics and Society in Contemporary Serbia . 55 4. Obstacles in the Integration Processes of Serbia to the European Union . 75 5. Serbia and the European Union – Th e European Union`s Strategy towards the Western Balkans and Its Implementation in Serbia . 91 6. Democratic Defi cits in the Western Balkans and Perspectives on European Integration. 105 7. Between Authoritarianism and Democracy – Transitional Processes in Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia. 139 INTRODUCTION Th is textbook represents the result of my theoretical research concerned with the controversial and postponed transition of Serbia from its “real-so- cialist” and, later on, its ethno-nationalist regime into a liberal-democratic multi-party system. Here my texts which I have written since the democratic overturn of the Milošević regime in the year 2000 up to the present are col- lected, taking into consideration the deep and multiple obstacles for imple- menting essential liberal-democratic institutional reforms together with ob- stacles that Serbia has been facing in its accession process into the European Union. Th ese texts were produced as my individual contributions to a few col- lective projects. Together with colleagues Prof. Dr. Vladimir Goati from Serbia, Prof. Dr. Lino Veljak from Croatia, and Prof. Dr. Veselin Pavićević from Montene- gro, I initiated from 2000 until 2008, the project – through the cooperation of the Center for Democratic Transition (CEDET) from Belgrade with two nongovernmental organizations from Zagreb and Podgorica – related to the comparative analysis of the transitional processes in the countries established aft er the breakup of the Former Yugoslavia. Two texts in this book were origi- nally written as introductory contributions for a fi rst and third book, which had been published as the result of the above mentioned project; namely, three books were published as a series, with the common main title: Be- tween Authoritarianism and Democracy, and with the subtitles: Institutional Framework (book I), Civil Society and Political Culture (book II), and Serbia at the Political Crossroads (book III). Th e introductory text for the fi rst book was “Between Authoritarianism and Democracy – Transitional processes in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia”, and for the third book in the above men- tioned series was “What is the National and State Interest of Contemporary Serbia?” Taking part in the prestigious European Civil Society Network (Ci-So- Net), wich was supported by the European Commission in the Fift h Frame- work, gave me the chance to write a paper on the obstacles which Serbia has been facing on its road and attempts towards both democratic transition and the European accession process. I presented that paper at the Ci-So-Net Con- ference held in London in 2004, under the title “Democratic Defi cits in the Western Balkans and Perspectives on European Integration”. Th is text was later on published in the international magazine Journal for International In- novation and Institutional Development. 8 Dragica Vujadinović: Serbia in the Maelstrom of Political Changes I attained further stimulus for my theoretical research in the fi eld of both the institutional democratization of Serbia and its integration into the Eu- ropean Union through taking part in a project, called: Th e Legal Capacity of Serbia for European Integration, led by Prof. Dr. Stevan Lilić at the Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade, and supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology. Th is project has been carried out since 2005, and there are three books published in the series, with three following my texts: fi rstly, “Serbia and the European Union – Th e European Union Strategy towards the West- ern Balkans and Its Implementation in Serbia”, secondly, “Obstacles in the Integration Process of Serbia to the European Union”, and, thirdly, “Serbia at the Crossroads of Strategic Orientation – the Victory of the Pro-European and Pro-Reform Option?”. In addition, I was invited by the prestigious sociologist and political theo- retician Prof. Dr. Claus Off e to prepare a presentation for a conference, called: Post-communist Social and Political Confl icts: Citizenship and Consolidation in New Democracies of South East Europe, held in Bucharest in 2007. Th e title of my paper was: “Th e Ethnifi cation of Politics and Society in Contemporary Serbia”. Th is text is also included in the textbook. Th e title of the book – Serbia in the Maelstrom of Political Changes – ex- presses the controversial, oft en traumatic experience of Serbian state and soci- ety on their road outlined towards overcoming both its Titoist and Milošević legacy, and establishing the rule of law and constitutional democracy together with its integration into European Union. Th ese texts aim to present the ob- stacles of democratic transformation and European integration, and to bet- ter understand the reasons and causes why both transitional and accession processes in Serbia have been postponed, perverted, and are far yet from fi n- ished. A critical analysis with its multiple negative implications, however, does not lead to negating the positive potential of Serbia in both the above men- tioned dimensions of its proposed democratization. On the contrary, I believe that Serbia possesses real social, political and cultural capacities for overcoming multiple objective obstacles on the road towards its full democratization, and I try to approve this statement especially in the latest written texts, called: “Serbia at the Crossroads of Strategic Orien- tation – Th e Victory of the Pro-European and Pro-Reform Option?”. Th e texts in this book are ordered from those which were last written to those written much earlier. Th e reasons for this method of ordering are the following: fi rstly, starting from the newest theoretical results and moving to- wards older ones gives an overview of the theoretical maturing of the author; secondly, it is more attractive for the reader of the book – from the point of actuality and comprehensiveness of insight – to start from the latest phases of the issue’s analysis; thirdly, more developed social and political results throw better light and allow for better insight into the previous phases of develop- ment; fourthly, and in continuation with the third point, it is methodologi- Introduction 9 cally more productive to start from what has been attained and to go far back towards what had been both the normative and empirical starting point.