EUROPEAN UNION AGENDA IN SERBIA'S PARTY POLITICS: A CLASH BETWEEN RATIONALITY AND IDENTITY POLITICS

Canveren Ö., Aknur M.

ROMANIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, vol.20, no.1, pp.88-117, 2020 (SSCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 20 Issue: 1
  • Publication Date: 2020
  • Journal Name: ROMANIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, Central & Eastern European Academic Source (CEEAS), Political Science Complete, vLex
  • Page Numbers: pp.88-117
  • Keywords: European Union, Serbia, Euroscepticism, Political Parties, Party Politics, LIMITED IMPACT, INTEGRATION, ENLARGEMENT, SYSTEM
  • Dokuz Eylül University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

This article argues that "identity politics" determines party positions and political orientations towards the EU agenda in Serbian party politics. In its attempt to analyse the underlying reasons and legitimation strategies of the Serbian parties towards the EU agenda, the research employs a thematic content analysis of documents of eight leading political parties. The analysis finds that the current political conjecture in Belgrade has created schisms in the political arena by focusing on changing orientations in between old/new and identity/rationality. As a result of this analysis the article comes up with three main conclusions: (i) Pro-Europeanism is instrumentalized as a strategic-rational foreign policy orientation for the process of constructing a "new" Serbia, while excluding any normative perspective. (ii) For domestic motivations, pro-European opposition parties instrumentalize EU agenda as a way of targeting the government. (iii) Conversely, hard-Eurosceptic parties frame the EU as the other and/or enemy, due to the 1999 NATO bombardment and also EU member states' recognition of Kosovo's independence.