State Policy in Managing Mass Protests: The Experience of the Republic of Serbia

Annotation

The significance of this study stems from the increasing scale and intensity of mass protests in Serbia between 2017 and 2025, which challenge the resilience of political institutions and the effectiveness of state governance in times of crisis. The Republic of Serbia represents an important case for analysis, as protest waves recur with notable regularity, reflecting deep-seated social and political contradictions. The aim of this article is to examine Serbia’s state policy in response to mass protest movements and to assess its effectiveness in terms of stabilizing the political system. The study employs a case study approach based on protest cycles from 2017 to 2025 and applies methods of political analysis, content analysis, and historical inquiry. The empirical basis includes international indices of democratic development (Freedom House, V-Dem), protest activity monitoring (ACLED), analytical reports of research centers, as well as works by Russian and foreign political scientists. The main findings reveal that the Serbian state has developed a “hybrid strategy” combining partial concessions, delegitimization of protests, and rhetoric of external interference. At the institutional level, this strategy ensured high regime stability, while at the social level its effectiveness proved low, as the structural causes of discontent were not addressed. Each protest wave resulted in temporary stabilization but simultaneously created new preconditions for mobilization. This highlights the short-term nature of the measures undertaken by the state and points to the risk of further legitimacy crises.

Keywords

• Republic of Serbia
• mass protests
• state policy
• protest movements
• hybrid regime
• political stability
• strategies of protest neutralization
• partial concessions
• delegitimization of the opposition
• external interference
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