In Montenegro, more than half of the citizens are not interested in politics, about a third of them understand democracy in an anti-democratic way, almost 60 percent of them are nationalist-oriented, and the degree of authoritarianism is at a high level.
This was shown by the survey "Political participation of citizens of Montenegro", which was conducted by the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CEDEM) from August 25 to September 15 on a representative sample of 1000 adult Montenegrin citizens, PR Center reports.
The chief methodologist of CEDEM, professor Miloš Bešić, said that there are currently regressive trends in the world when it comes to the degree of democracy in society, and in accordance with the Lider democracy index.
"In the last few years, we have a crisis of democracy in the whole world. Democracy is in trouble as a political system of government not only in Montenegro, but also in the whole world. We have to understand that the spirit of democracy that flourished in the XNUMXs and XNUMXs stopped four or five years ago and now we have regressive trends - the growth of right-wing movements, populist leaders, authoritarianism..." said Bešić.
Speaking about political awareness, Bešić said that CEDEM's data show that the majority of citizens are not interested in politics.
"The data show that we do not have a particularly large number of people who are very interested in politics, only 3.7 percent, while 32.4 percent are somewhat interested, 38.4 percent are not very interested, and 25.6 percent are not interested at all," said Bešić.
He pointed out that the level of citizens' interest in politics is much higher in Western Europe and the Scandinavian countries than in the countries of the region.
Presenting data related to social capital, the first parameter of which is trust in political institutions, Bešić said that the President of Montenegro is the only institution where we have 18.7 percent more people who trust that institution than the number of those who do not trust him.
"All other institutions except the police, which has an index of 1.9, have a negative value: the Army of Montenegro -5.6, the Parliament of Montenegro -14.2, the Judiciary -15.7, the Government -16.9 and political parties -47.5. People in this country do not like and do not trust political parties. "Political parties are the "cancer of the wound" of social capital in this country," said Bešić.
He said that as part of the research, they measured interpersonal trust between people.
"Three quarters of people in Montenegro do not trust other people. This is information that has not changed since 2008. The entire social life still functions in a zone of mistrust. When you look in relation to other countries, you will see that Montenegro is at the bottom of the table, and only Slovakia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Portugal, Macedonia, Croatia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Albania are worse than it," said Bešić.
He said that Montenegro's total social capital is 9.9, stating that the lowest level in Romania is -23.7.
"The higher the social capital, the higher the human development index (an index that measures the overall quality of life). To a good extent, the index of human development in this and other countries of the region is due to the fact that we have low values of social capital", said Bešić.
According to him, the citizens of Montenegro prefer the democratic political system, but it is important how they understand democracy.
"35.6 percent of citizens believe that democracy is when people listen to their rulers, 34.9 percent of citizens believe that democracy is when the army takes over when the government is incompetent, and 31.7 percent of citizens believe that democracy is when religious authorities give the final interpretation of the law. These data tell us that there are about a third of people in Montenegro who understand democracy in an anti-democratic way," said Bešić.
He said that if the overall level is measured, the figure is that 76.7 percent of citizens in Montenegro are democratically oriented, 61.7% are protectionist, and 34.1% are antidemocratically oriented.
"When viewed in relation to European countries, Montenegro has the lowest level of democratic orientation measured in Montenegro, and the highest level of anti-democratic orientation is measured in Montenegro compared to the whole of Europe," said Bešić.
Speaking about political participation, Bešić said that only 4.6 percent of citizens belong to one of the standardized organizations.
"It is interesting that, when it comes to protest participation, since 2008 there has been an increase in protest participation in Montenegro. When you combine the fact that people's willingness to participate in protests is growing, and that these people do not trust the institutions, this can represent a potential problem," said Bešić.
He also indicated that they also investigated whether it is okay to accept a bribe at the workplace, where 18.5 percent of citizens answered in the affirmative.
"We also asked citizens whether it is okay to evade taxes if such a possibility arises, 20.5 percent of them answered in the affirmative. We also asked citizens if it is okay to request benefits from the state that they are not entitled to, 25.4 percent of them answered yes. We also asked citizens whether it is okay to avoid paying for a ticket in public transport, 35.4 percent of them answered in the affirmative," said Bešić.
He explained that as part of the research, they developed a scale that measures nationalist orientation.
"The research showed that three quarters of the citizens of Montenegro agree with the statement that the survival of one's own people is the main task of every individual. This information has not changed since 2015. "Every second citizen of Montenegro says that ethnically mixed marriages must be more unstable than other marriages, and there we have an increase in value compared to 2015," said Bešić.
That a person can feel completely safe only when he lives in an environment where the majority of members of his nation is considered by every other citizen of Montenegro.
"58 percent of citizens believe that cooperation between nations can be achieved, but not complete trust." If you look at the average level of nationalism, 55 percent of people in Montenegro were nationalist-oriented in 2015, and today it is 57.7 percent," said Bešić.
He pointed out that the degree of authoritarianism in Montenegro is at a high level.
"When you have a very pronounced level of authoritarianism and a very high level of nationalism, and a very low level of democratic values, it is very difficult to create a functional democracy," Bešić assessed.
Presenting data related to ethnic distance, Bešić said that every fourth citizen does not want immigrants and foreign workers to be his neighbors.
"Every fourth citizen says that he does not want people of a different religion to be his neighbors." "The survey showed that 16.7 percent of citizens do not want their neighbors to be of other races, and 11.3 percent to be Roma," said Bešić.
The survey, he added, also showed that 65.3 percent of citizens do not want their neighbor to be a drug addict, 54.4 percent homosexuals, 48.8 percent HIV/AIDS patients, 45.1 percent heavy alcoholics and 44.9 percent people who have been in prison.
"The average behavioral distance is 51.7 percent of citizens. "Half of the citizens of Montenegro distance themselves from people whose behavior is different from them," explained Bešić.
Speaking about foreign policy orientation, Bešić said that 38 percent of Montenegrin citizens are Western oriented, while 17.3 percent of them are Non-Western oriented.
"From May 2023, the number of people who are Western-oriented is decreasing," said Bešić.
He said that EU and NATO support is in a slight regressive trend.
"We asked citizens which countries are friends and which are enemies of Montenegro. The survey showed that 57.6 percent of citizens identified Serbia as Montenegro's greatest friend. France is in second place with 35.7 percent, Russia is third with 35.4 percent. Germany, China, and Turkey follow, and every fourth Cre Gore citizen considers the United States of America to be a friend of Montenegro," said Bešić.
The project coordinator of CEDEM, Nevenka Vuksanović, said that the research "Political participation of citizens of Montenegro" was carried out within the project "Inclusive dialogue for the progress of society".
"The project partner is the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT). The project is supported by the European Union, through the EU Delegation in Montenegro, and co-financed by the Ministry of Public Administration," said Vuksanović.
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