Political Life

Controlling the Right-Wing Political Parties: Informal Mechanisms of Co-optation and Marginalization in Serbia (2017–2024)

2025-11-18T11:38:17+01:00

This article examines how right-wing parties in Serbia (2017–2024) are selectively included in or excluded from the political system through informal mechanisms of control. Drawing on theories of delegative democracy, informal institutions, competitive authoritarianism, and selective pluralism, it explores how the governing coalition co-opts, symbolically legitimizes, or conditionally tolerates opposition actors while limiting their substantive political impact. Through case studies of the Serbian Patriotic Alliance (SPAS), Zavetnici, Dveri, the New Democratic Party of Serbia (NDSS), the People’s Party (NS), the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), and Branimir Nestorović’s political movements, the article demonstrates that the right-wing opposition remains formally present, but its relevance depends on its contingent utility to those in power. The findings indicate that co-optation, selective visibility, and temporary marginalization are not anomalies but recurring governance patterns that sustain an illusory pluralism, while displacing genuine competition through personalized decision-making and media-driven control.

From Social Innovation toward the Paradigm of New Public Governance

2025-11-18T11:38:17+01:00

The paper explores the relationship between social innovation and the concept of New Public Governance (NPG) as the dominant paradigmatic framework of contemporary public administration. In the context of globalization, social crises, and increasing societal risks, public policies are increasingly relying on networks, partnerships, and multi-actor collaboration. Social innovations, emerging from community initiatives or through cooperation between public, private, and civil sectors, represent a potential for transforming traditional modes of governance. Based on the assumption that social innovations are not a governance model per se but become part of it through institutionalization and integration into public policies, the paper aims to highlight their role in shaping New Public Governance and improving the effectiveness of public service delivery.

German foreign policy and Serbia during the mandate of Olaf Scholz's government

2025-11-18T11:38:17+01:00

Paper explores German foreign policy regarding Serbia during the mandate of the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who succeeded Angela Merkel in that position. Paper examines continuities and changes in the foreign policy towards Serbia, and determines key issues in relations from Berlin’s perspective in the period 2021-2024. From a theoretical point of view, paper is based on Charles Hermann's conceptualization of foreign policy changes. In addition to the prevailing continuities, related to priorities of regional stability, economic engagement, but also framework of initiatives for regional cooperation and process of European integration, adjustment changes and attempts of program changes are also identified in Germany's approach to Serbia. Key open issues on which German government took a more critical stance and (or) exerted more intense pressure were discussed: (1) (non)joining the regime of sanctions against Russian Federation, (2) deadlock in the process of normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo, (3) democratic backsliding in Serbia. Consequences are reflected in the deteriorating level of political relations between Germany and Serbia during most of the Olaf Scholz’s mandate.

OD BESTSELLER-A DO FLOP-A: REFROMA IZBORNOG SISTEMA NEMAČKE

2025-11-18T11:38:18+01:00

Rad analizira reformu izbornog sistema Nemačke iz 2023. godine i sistemske posledice u izbornom ciklusu 2025. godine. Tvrdnja rada jeste da sistem nije izmenjen putem direktnog reformisanja izbornih pravila, već je u pitanju promena do koje je došlo usled naslaganja (layering) novih pravila na već postojeće, čime se menja njihova logika funkcionisanja. Uočena je jasna sistemska greška koja, posredstvom uvođenja pravila o jemstvu drugog glasa (Zweitstimmendeckung) i konsekventnog ukidanja komenzacijskih mandata, ostavlja iza sebe određeni broj izbornih jedinica bez predstavnika. Empirijska analiza performansi reformisanog izbornog sistema govori o kontinurianoj proporcionalizaciji sistema, kao i o specifičnostima koje se javljaju u izgubljenim izbornim jedinicama.

The Illusion of the “Reverse Kissinger”

2025-11-18T11:38:18+01:00

The renewed great power competition has intensified debates on possible strategies of the United States toward the other two major powers in the international system, Russia and China. One approach that has been gaining popularity, particularly with Donald Trump’s return to the White House, is the “reverse Kissinger” strategy. Drawing on the analogy with President Richard Nixon’s diplomacy and his most influential foreign policy advisor, Henry Kissinger, in the early 1970s—when the restoration of U.S.-China relations weakened the Soviet Union—this approach envisions improving U.S. relations with Russia in order to separate Moscow from Beijing and limit China’s growing power. Relying on a comparative method, the paper examines differences between the original context of this approach and its potential contemporary application. The theoretical framework employed is the balance of threat, which highlights fundamental differences in the perception of security challenges in the modern U.S.–China–Russia triangle compared to the U.S.–USSR–China triangle of the early 1970s. Unlike that stage of the Cold War, when Beijing identified Moscow as its main threat, today both powers perceive Washington’s policy as their central challenge, which has enabled the formation of their strategic partnership. Moreover, tensions caused by the war in Ukraine and Russia’s growing economic dependence on China represent additional obstacles to the application of this strategy. Under such circumstances, the “reverse Kissinger” should be seen as an illusion based on faulty analogical reasoning.

Bring Them All Home: The Hostage Return Protests and Making of Israeli Foreign Policy in the October 7th War

2025-11-18T11:38:18+01:00

The article presents an analysis of the role of protests aimed at the return of Israeli hostages as a key factor in setting the foreign policy agenda of the State of Israel during the first two years of the October 7th War. By relying on Robert Putnam’s ‘two-level’ approach to foreign policy analysis, the protesters, both as organised groups and regular citizens, are viewed as key actors in the ‘second’, i.e. domestic level of politics. By demonstrating the importance of protests in setting the agenda for warfare and peace negotiations, as well as their limitations in this regard, the article argues for a continued analytical relevance of popular mobilization within Israel’s political system and foreign policy. In particular, the ability of protests to set and maintain the return of the hostages as war goal, yet their inability to effect a ceasefire deal, is placed in the context of Israel’s political pluralism and democratic procedures.

The ups and downs of Serbia's foreign policy after 2000

2025-11-18T11:38:18+01:00