AUTHORITARIANISM - RESEARCH ATLASAVtokratija

How the authoritarian system works in Serbia

General research connected to documented examples, findings, and sources from Serbia.

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100questions

20areas

148academic works

130Serbia sources

SIX ENTRIES INTO THE MATRIX

Which question do you want to start with?

Concrete questions are the starting point. The other 94 are available through the map of 20 areas.

22How can elections be unfair if no one stole my vote?What elections are for when they are not fair 62Why do people use connections even when they believe connections should not be necessary?Why people stay silent, adapt, and think they are alone 48What happens to institutions when people are hired and promoted mainly for political loyalty?How the system changes public administration and public services 33How does a court lose its independence while remaining independent on paper?How law, courts, and parliament are used 49Why do employees find it harder to say 'no' when their job or term continually depends on a new government decision?How the system changes public administration and public services 36How can an institution be captured if no one ordered every employee what to do?How independent institutions are neutralized and crises are used

MAP OF THE AUTHORITARIAN SYSTEM

Twenty areas guide you through the system as a whole.

Select an area to see why it matters and which five questions it opens.

01How to recognize authoritarian rule and distinguish its forms5 questions 02How democracy disappears step by step5 questions 03Who really rules and what happens after the leader5 questions 04Why the police, military, and security services obey5 questions 05What elections are for when they are not fair5 questions 06How the ruling party and local networks hold the system together5 questions 07How law, courts, and parliament are used5 questions 08How independent institutions are neutralized and crises are used5 questions 09How money, jobs, and state assistance preserve power5 questions 10How the system changes public administration and public services5 questions 11How those in power shape what people can learn5 questions 12How digital surveillance and bad news change power5 questions 13Why people stay silent, adapt, and think they are alone5 questions 14Why people support the government and how power is justified5 questions 15How associations, unions, schools, and churches are controlled5 questions 16How the system punishes and intimidates without open violence5 questions 17How people organize and when protest changes power5 questions 18How an authoritarian system falls and what remains afterward5 questions 19How authoritarian rulers use support from abroad5 questions 20How democracy is defended and rebuilt5 questions

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WHY THIS AREA MATTERS

How law, courts, and parliament are used

Law can constrain power, but it can also help present control as ordinary procedure. It is therefore not enough to read what the rules say. We must examine how they are applied and to whom.

QUESTIONS IN THIS AREA

31How can those in power change the system through laws and apparently proper procedures?32Why does an authoritarian government need a constitution, courts, and parliament?33How does a court lose its independence while remaining independent on paper?34Can courts and parliament sometimes still stop an authoritarian government?35How does a law that does not apply equally to everyone force people to comply?

Research-based answerAUTLAS Research Base

How can those in power change the system through laws and apparently proper procedures?

Confidence in the conclusionwell substantiated

key academic works5

linked Serbia sources10

Period201226

ANSWER FROM THE MATRIX

The system can be changed with an orderly number of votes in the assembly, a formal public hearing and a decision of the constitutional court.

The problem arises when a series of seemingly legal changes are used to permanently make the government more difficult to control and replace: it changes the way judges and supervisors choose, narrows access to information, weakens opposition rights or rearranges election rules to its advantage. Each step can have an acceptable rationale, while their joint effect becomes authoritarian. Therefore, the legality of the procedure is not the same as the political purpose and consequences. It is necessary to look at the speed, the quality of the debate, the possibility of independent control of the government.

SERBIA CASE STUDY

Example from SerbiaChecked 10 sources; 10 manufacturers

10 related sources; 10 groups of evidence producers; domestic NGOs/research producers: 7

In Serbia, political power is often spread through formal legal steps: accelerated parliamentary procedure, changes of rules, selection of members of supervisory bodies, special laws for individual projects or long-term appointment of acting officials. Each step has a member of the law and a vote, but the sum can reduce public debate, independence and the possibility of control. The law is thus not abolished it is used to give the new distribution of power an official form.

How the finding is separated in the matrix

01Established fact

Scientific analysis of the legislative takeover and monitoring of the Open Parliament, Transparency Serbia and CEP document procedures, appointments and exceptions that move control to the executive branch. Passivation of addresses in the Presevo Valley gives a concrete case in which the technical administrative procedure, often without properly submitted decision, produces consequences for documents, work, property and voting rights.

02Our interpretation

The question is not only whether the procedure was formally complied with, but who could participate, whether there was a real debate and what lasting effect the rule has on the balance of power.

03Does it show the same process?

Yes Serbian sources provide more concrete channels of authoritarian legalism.

04Important caveat or alternative explanation

Accelerated procedure, special law or acting person can have a justified reason. Authoritarian form occurs when exceptions are repeated, serve the same center of power and do not have effective control.

LIMITS OF THE CONCLUSION

What the general answer does not allow us to conclude

Not every constitutional change should be declared an abuse. Content, speed, public debate and whether the government will lose elections in the future are important.

GENERAL RESEARCH BASE

Works supporting this answer, with their evidence type and an explanation of how they relate to the claim.

A01

comparing several countries or cases

Landau, D. (2013), „Abusive Constitutionalism“, UC Davis Law Review 47: 189–260.

Landau, D. (2013), "Abusive Constitutionalism", UC Davis Law Review 47: 189–260.

Contribution to this answer: Landau shows how democracy can be weakened by a completely ‘legal’ path through constitutional changes that formally respect the procedure, and essentially remove the brakes on the executive.

How the authoritarian system works in Serbia

Which question do you want to start with?

How law, courts, and parliament are used

How the finding is separated in the matrix

Landau, D. (2013), „Abusive Constitutionalism“, UC Davis Law Review 47: 189–260.

Scheppele, K. L. (2018), „Autocratic Legalism“, University of Chicago Law Review 85(2): 545–583.

Varol, O. O. (2015), „Stealth Authoritarianism“, Iowa Law Review 100: 1673–1742.

Ginsburg, T. i Huq, A. Z. (2018), How to Save a Constitutional Democracy, University of Chicago Press.

Bermeo, N. (2016), „On Democratic Backsliding“, Journal of Democracy 27(1): 5–19.

Milačić, Filip. 2025. “Democratic Backsliding Through Legislative Capture in Serbia: A One-Man Show.” The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 712(1): 47–60. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162251316346

Otvoreni parlament. 2025. Godišnji izveštaj o radu XIV saziva Narodne skupštine, februar 2024 – april 2025. Beograd: CRTA.

European Policy Centre (CEP). 2023. The Neverending Story of Senior Civil Service Depoliticisation in Serbia. Belgrade: CEP.

Đorđević, Miloš, i Nemanja Nenadić. 2023. Civil Society Report on the Implementation of UNCAC Chapters II and V in Serbia. Beograd: Transparentnost Srbija i UNCAC Coalition.

Inicijativa mladih za ljudska prava i Odbor za ljudska prava Bujanovac. 2023. Pasivizacija adresa Albanaca u Preševskoj dolini kao diskriminatorna praksa. Beograd i Bujanovac: YIHR Srbija i Odbor za ljudska prava Bujanovac.

Venice Commission. 2026. Urgent Opinion on the 28 January 2026 Amendments to Laws Governing the Judiciary and the Prosecution. CDL-AD(2026)016.

European Commission. 2026. 2026 Rule of Law Report: Country Chapter on the Rule of Law Situation in Serbia. SWD(2026) 931 final.

Radna grupa Nacionalnog konventa o Evropskoj uniji za Poglavlje 23. 2026. Saopštenje povodom postupka izmene pravosudnih zakona. 6. maj 2026.

Visoki savet sudstva. 2026. Saopštenje povodom Predloga izmena pravosudnih zakona. 15. januar 2026.

Ugarković, Uroš. 2023. “What Is Parliamentarism to Populists? The Populist Redefinition of the Concept of Parliamentarism in Parliamentary Debates in Post-Milošević Serbia.” Redescriptions 26(2): 160–175. https://doi.org/10.33134/rds.403

Based on academic research

Practice documented in Serbia

Sources open to scrutiny

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