Pathways to politics: new left movement parties in Post-Yugoslav space

This thesis investigates processes behind the formation of new left movement parties in post-Yugoslav space by tracing and comparing the emergence of two movement parties: Initiative for Democratic Socialism (Slovenia) and Do Not Let Belgrade D(r)own (Serbia). Its main aim is to describe mechanisms through which activist groups with long-term experience of nonelectoral activism engage in movement party formation, which is conceptualized as a core change in social movement strategy. The central argument of the thesis is that movement party formation can be explained by two key mechanisms: strategic learning, which takes place over a longer period of time, and cognitive liberation, which is provoked by the experience of eventful protest. In addition to establishing similarities across the two cases, comparative design serves to investigate to what extent and how each of the two contexts structured different movements’ strategic articulations. It identifies two strategic articulations of the electoral new left in the post-Yugoslav space: national-level democratic-socialist pathway and local-level green-municipalist pathway. Empirically, the thesis combines theory-building process tracing and cross-case analysis, outlining the movement parties’ long-term origins through detailed case studies. In addition to in-depth interviews with activists from various sub-sectors of left-wing activism in Slovenia and Serbia, the case studies draw on the analysis of activists’ strategic framing within protest events, media appearances and organizational documents. The thesis aims to contribute to the body of research on stability and change in social movement strategy as well as to update the literature on left-wing movement parties with cases that remained relatively underinvestigated. At the same time, the thesis takes a novel approach to postsocialist left-wing activism, going beyond the usual analytical division between electoral and nonelectoral forms of activism. Against the backdrop of the assumptions on the static, transactional and NGO-ized nature of postsocialist activism, it shows activists’ capacity for strategic change.