MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT IN EASTERN SERBIA

Serbia is witnessing democratic backsliding which is further accentuated by the Covid pandemic. Yet there is still space to promote democratic practice from the bottom up at the local level. Despite an improved legal framework for citizen participation i.e. for decision making on local budgets LGs do not yet routinely consult citizens or when they do the quality of the process is often poor. Meanwhile LGs have limited fiscal autonomy with property tax being one of the few own source revenues they can spend in line with their own (and citizens) priorities. While there is a strong interest from LGs to increase their revenues through property tax collection they currently dont have the capacity to complete the property registration process. Given Serbias electoral (closed party list) and income tax system (direct deduction from the salary) the accountability link between LGs and citizens is rather weak with the locally collected and spent property tax being an important exception.