Weak Opposition in Weak Parliament – The Case of Serbia

The aim of this paper is to examine the possibility of the parliamentary opposition in Serbia to influence the legislative process in the parliament and to hold the executive accountable. Numerous studies have pointed out the importance of parliamentary opposition for democracy. However, there is a general decline in the power of parliament which also affects opposition’s ability to act. This is especially visible in new and transitional democracies, characterized by lack of strong institutions and weak rule of law. This paper analyses two main aspects of oppositional activity. The first one deals with the ability of parliamentary opposition in Serbia to influence the law making process. The focus here is on the institutionalized phase of law making process, starting from proposal phase, through parliamentary debate and hearings until the voting part. We are especially concerned with the ability of opposition to change draft laws through amendments. To prove our arguments, we look into three different groups of laws using the method of agreement: budget, corruption and environment legislation. Second, the paper examines the power of opposition to hold the government accountable by analysing legal and procedural framework of the oversight parliamentary function (e.g. government reports to parliament, question times, etc.). In-depth interviews we conducted with 10 MPs in May and June 2012 bring additional understanding of MPs attitudes and their own understanding of position and role they have in the parliament. The research is focused on 2008-2012 parliamentary convocation because it was the only full four-year parliamentary mandate since democratic changes in Serbia in 2000. In addition to that, the elections in 2007 and 2008 were crucial because they finally determined Serbian pro EU orientation.