Dominant parties monopolising power is a feature widely shared across Southeast Europe. In many countries, governments are or have been shielding opposition parties off public and private resources and acted as gatekeepers of relations with the external world. Oftentimes dominant parties cultivate patronage-based linkages with their constituencies and coalition partners, fuelling dependency cycles which are difficult to escape. In response, opposition actors have opted for a variety of strategies to compete on a fundamentally skewed playing field – with varying degrees of success.

The aim of this workshop is to comparatively assess opposition strategies in Southeast Europe and to scrutinise the factors that either have contributed to the opposition’s success or failure. Bringing together both academic and activist expertise, the workshop will attempt to derive some general lessons learned from the opposition strategies in Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Moldova, Hungary, Turkey, and Kosovo.