The Irregular Pendulum of Democracy

Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos is Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.

1.      Introduction.- 2.      Populism, Clientelism and Corruption and the International Crisis of Democracy.- 3.      The Pendulum of Democracy in Post-Yugoslav Successor States: Causes of the Backsliding of Democracy.- 4.      Economy, Culture and Party System: Preconditions for State-Society Relations Eroding Democracy.- 5.      Populism as a Type of State-Society Relations Eroding Democracy.- 6.      Political clientelism as a Type of State-Society Relations Eroding Democracy.- 7.      Political corruption as a Type of State-Society Relations Eroding Democracy.- 8.      How Elected Governments Make Democracies Backslide: the Case of Serbia.- 9.   How Elected Governments Make Democracies Backslide: the Case of Montenegro.- 10.    How Elected Governments Make Democracies Backslide: the case of North Macedonia.- 11.    Prolonging or Halting Democratic Erosion in Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia: a Comparison.- 12.    Conclusions.

"The book represents an important contribution to contemporary studies of democracy and provides its readers with an innovative approach to state-society relations. Focused on three successor countries of Yugoslavia, its relevance goes far beyond this region and should be of interest to any scholar interested in what makes democracy sustainable." (Dusan Spasojevic, Comparative Southeast European Studies, Vol. 71 (4), 2023)