The party supporters structure transformation

Abstract

This article deals with a description of the party supporters structure transformation in Serbia during political changes that occurred in 1990 and 2000 (the moments when Slobodan Milošević came into power and was overthrown) as well as with explanation of reasons for establishing such a structure. The dominant interpretation of reasons for appearing and structuring of political parties as well as voters determination has been the polarization model based on the study of S. M. Lipset and S. Rokan (1967). In connection to the polarization model, three groups of problems can be distinguished: (1) the actual effectiveness of the model in West European countries; (2) the actual effectiveness of the model in post-communist countries, that is in countries who experienced a break in their multiparty system, and (3) the actual effectiveness of the model in Serbia.

Keywords

• Social cleavages
• party supporters
• class voting