The West is Dear, but the East is Dearer: Policy Pressures and Actors’ Preferences in Serbia

• Autoři: VUČKOVIĆ Vladimir
• Rok publikování: 2023
• Druh: Výzkumná zpráva
• www: https://www.balkancrossroads.com/_files/ugd/1485a8_1a767824e4bb42bc92c2f2e86b5bbbab.pdf
• Popis: This policy paper aims to investigate the influence of Russia, China, Turkey, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf on the process of (in)stability, including democratization, in Serbia from 2008 to 2022. By using various soft power means, these external actors have underpinned its foreign policy actions and strategies to strengthen the politics of the alternative, consequently giving legitimacy to democratic backsliding trends and consolidation of a semi-authoritarian regime under Aleksandar Vučić. The policy paper claims that all powers tend to contribute to the democratic backsliding in Serbia as they fit into a general tendency of weak governance and erosion of the rule of law, which is reflected in the non-transparency of economic-infrastructural projects and security cooperation and the glorification of the cult of autocratic leaders - Putin, Jinping, and Erdogan. On the other hand, unlike the other powers, Russia remains the only state that contributes to the destabilization of Serbia as it uses “veto power” within broad policy areas to expand its influence and diminish regional stability. The paper concludes that the key setback in the context of the quality of democracy in Serbia is not external but internal. It originates from the rise to power of Aleksandar Vučić, who combines autocratic governance rules with politics of the alternative, consequently legitimizing the decline of democracy and the erosion of democratic safeguards in the country