Variation in Democratic Belief System (DBS) Across Western Balkans: Youth Agency and the Future of Democratic Resistance

This essay examines how democratic beliefs are structured across Western Balkan countries and generations. Using European Social Survey data and network analysis, it finds that citizens formally support democratic values, but these values are often weakly connected and organized differently across countries. Direct democracy is the closest regional common denominator, while young people are not consistently more democratically oriented than older generations and display less crystallized belief systems. The essay argues that one-size-fits-all interventions are inadequate and recommends civic education focused on relationships among democratic values, alongside deliberative and participatory mechanisms that strengthen democratic resilience.