The election super year is marked by more fear than hope – due to the rise of the right, the strengthening of autocracies and political elites who, lacking solutions to crises and conflicts, are putting the rule of law on the back burner. A Donald Trump victory would push the issue of democracy out of…
If we choose education and culture, we’ll be able to choose everything else too – this was the message of the panel titled “Imagine there’s no…” Literary historian, anthropologist, classicist and writer Svetlana Slapšak, board member of the Center for the Defense of Human Rights “Memorial” Aleksandar Cherkasov and CRTA’s Creative Director Radovan Kupres discussed…
There are clear international standards for assessing and improving the electoral process, and key recommendations need to be implemented as quickly as possible, particularly in the period between elections. The topic of EU integration was not particularly visible during the elections in Serbia, previous ODIHR recommendations were not applied while, at the same time, the…
The exchange of services for votes knows no boundaries. Not those of states, nor of laws. At the panel “Political Web Hosting: Mechanisms and consequences of political clientelism in the Western Balkans and Beyond”, participants highlighted that the consequences of clientelist practices are borne by both citizens and institutions. “Clientelism persists because it is more…
How can we prevent those who attempt to stop voters from clearly expressing their will? How can we track down all election manipulations, expose them, and clear the path for citizens to the ballot box? At the panel “Migrations and Other Manipulations: How to Prevent Electoral Engineering?” participants agreed that the problem is significant, but…
Traditional media still set the agenda, especially in this part of Europe, but their audience is aging, and new actors are taking over that role. Social media and big tech companies have been complicating the fight for democracy for years, without any regulation. Communication and interaction with the audience, as well as concrete measures to…
“Either we have an authoritarian regime, or a democracy – there is no such thing as a hybrid regime. There is no compromise between repression and freedom”, was a key statement heard on the panel “How to Recognize Electoral Authoritarianism”. Francesco Ronchi, visiting professor at Columbia University and a representative of the Directorate for Democracy…
“The main method of Russian political election technology is war”, said Aleksandar Cherkasov from the Human Rights Defense Center Memorial. As a prominent peace activist and human rights advocate, he explained the mechanism of violence that, according to him, has been passed down for decades, resulting in today’s war in Ukraine. But it wasn’t just…
Read the full speech of Svetlana Slapšak, at the International Conference “In Effect, Do We Elect?” in Belgrade held on 23. October 2024. Ochlocracy is a Greek compound word meaning “rule of the mob,” first used by the ancient Greek historian Polybius. Here, I use it as an operational term to describe the current mode…
