Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, America.gov, as part of its feature “The Evolving Work of Democracy,” is asking academics and journalists from the United States and elsewhere to comment on the challenges to democracy that still lay ahead for countries of the former Eastern Bloc. What follows are their responses – and yours are welcome as well.

What is the greatest challenge facing democracy in Serbia?

I most recently visited Belgrade just a month ago, in October. I have been to Serbia at least once every year since my first visit, on behalf of the organization I work for, the National Democratic Institute or NDI, in 1995. NDI runs democracy programs that support the development of mainstream political parties, civic groups, fair elections, and parliament. We work with hundreds of people on such activities as setting up members of parliament (MP) constituency offices, getting women and young people elected to public office, building political party capacity to develop reform policies, helping Roma and Serbia’s other minority groups to participate in politics, and enabling civic groups, such as CeSID, Environmental Ambassadors, and the Zajecar Initiative, to inform and organize the public on a wide variety of reform issues affecting society.

Over the course of many years I have seen Serbia change dramatically, even as it has continuously wrestled with the legacy of Slobodan Milosevic. But I have to say that, this year, on this visit, I noticed a perceptible, if intangible, change, one that may mark a turning point in Serbia’s democratic transition. What I noticed was that Milosevic’s legacy of autocracy, exclusion and conflict — and the dominant political debate in response to it — is loosening its grip. People are beginning to turn their attentions toward the future and talking about new issues in new ways, allowing for new possibilities. There is new energy entering Serbia’s politics that is very welcome.

The challenge, then, at this stage, is to position Serbia’s political institutions in ways that not only allow for new issues, new coalitions — new politics, in effect — to come forward, but to promote them with vigor. This means several things. More people should come into the political process, advocating around many different issues, from gender equality to environmental protection to job creation. Parliament needs to become a principal gathering place for these people, which means that MPs need to reach out and work with a variety of issue groups around the country on legislation and monitoring how laws, once passed, are being implemented. And Serbia should examine its election and political party laws, as well as parliament’s resources, to see what might be changed or expanded to encourage more participation, more accountability, and stronger bonds between citizens and the elected officials who represent them.

Serbia’s democratic transition was bottled up by Slobodan Milosevic while he was in power and slowed by his legacy after he left, and Serbia must genuinely examine and understand this legacy so that it can truly move on, move forward. I think it can and it will. The democratic energy that was there all along and that burst forward in 1997 and again rebounded in 2000 is there and taking on new, exciting forms. Based on what I’m seeing in Belgrade and elsewhere around the country, the challenges to democracy are being met, in ways large and small, one day at a time. If anything, the democratic transition will accelerate in the coming few years.

Learn more about Robert Benjamin.