Competitive Authoritarianism and Populism in Serbia under Vučić in Political Cartoons

Abstract

We explored links between competitive authoritarianism and populism in Serbia under Vučić via mixed methods. We conducted a quantitative content analysis of 228 political cartoons (2013–2017) by Dušan Petričić, a leading cartoonist and government critic, and qualitative visual and contextual analysis of four cartoons that reflected key themes—media freedom violations, unfair political competition, and populist and abusive rule. We found that populism appeared as the ‘soft’ face of competitive authoritarianism, tolerable to domestic audiences and acceptable to influential international actors because of its reliance on more informal and sophisticated and less repressive forms of authoritarian manipulation.