Democratic Resilience from Below: Voter Profiles of New Opposition Parties in Serbia

This paper examines the socio-economic and cultural profiles of the average voter supporting new opposition parties in Serbia, which have emerged as pivotal actors in advancing the democratization process. In Serbia, new opposition parties arose following prolonged periods of protests and social movements driven by grassroots mobilization and demands for political change, addressing the widespread public dissatisfaction with the state of democracy. Relying on original survey data from 2024, this study recodes occupation into class categories based on Oesch (2006) and examines the cultural and economic attitudes of voters. By linking class positions to attitudinal dimensions, it sheds light on how socio-economic and ideological factors shape support for these new opposition parties. Using descriptive analyses and binary logit regressions, this paper finds that voters for new opposition parties in Serbia are urban, student-led and culturally progressive. The findings contribute to insights about the relationship between voters, opposition movements, and democratic resilience in similar fragile democracies beyond the Western Balkans.