Ideological self-description and attitudes towards Kosovo secession in Serbia

Abstract

Ideologies are often understood as general principles that connect attitudes towards various political issues into (more or less) coherent belief systems. On the psychological level, ideologies also function as selfcategorizing labels that help placing oneself vis-à-vis political objects, and thereby perform a political orientation function. Yet, doubts have often been expressed about citizens' levels of political interest and sophistication that are deemed necessary for establishing and maintaining the connection between ideological labels and political opinions. This is especially seen as a potential problem in the so-called young democracies. In order to address this problem, the paper analyzes the relationship between ideological self-labeling and political opinion in Serbia. Opinion in question concerns the attitude towards the secession of Kosovo, a southern autonomous province in Serbia.