The Influence of Political Parties of National Minorities on Cultural Autonomy in the Republic of Serbia

It is the authors’ ambition to answer the following question: to ‎what extend does the political parties of national minorities influence‎ on the cultural autonomy in Serbia. With an intention of answering ‎the research question the author analize the role of minority parties ‎in establishing of National Minorities Councils (NMCs). NMCs are ‎the main institution of cultural autonomy in Serbia. There are twenty three ‎minority groups who have established National Minority Council,‎ there for author of this paper selected two minority groups as case‎ studies: Hungarian and Croats. Political parties of national minorities‎ play a major role in the integration process, their role in the field ‎of political integration is clear, however, the influence of these parties,‎ as the main generators of national minority interests, on cultural ‎autonomy and social integration has not been sufficiently explored.‎ The aim of this paper is to examine the following hypothesis: Cultural ‎autonomy in Serbia is primarily domain, even monopolized by minorities’ ‎parties. In order to determine the character of the impact of‎ political parties on the work of NMCs first step will be to distinguish‎ main features of the model of cultural autonomy applied in Serbia. In ‎following will be given a brief overview of minority parties development ‎with special emphasis on their position in political and party‎ system of Serbia. Finally the impact of minority parties on the functioning‎ of NMCs will be presented, through two parameters: participation ‎in elections for NMCS and decision-making process. The first ‎parameter is dedicated to analysis of the results and the subjects of the ‎campaigns. The second parameter relates to the degree of inclusiveness ‎of the decision-making process.