Sociodemografic and psychological characteristics of voters for SNSD and SDP BiH: Two faces of social democracy in Bosnia & Herzegovina

There are two social democratic parties in Bosnia Herzegovina: SNSD and SDP BiH. These two parties differ regarding their origin and their political activity in Bosnia Herzegovina. Thus, it was assumed that voters of the two parties differ regarding their national composition, socio-demographic characteristics and political attitudes. In May of 2007 a face to face interview was conducted with 260 voters of SNSD and 147 voters of SDP BiH. SNSD’s voters were found to be less tolerant, less liberal and more prone to nationalism and the feeling of ethical superiority relative to voters of SDP BiH. As a matter of fact, SNSD’s voters were more similar to voters of some nationalistic political parties like SDS then to voters of SDP BiH. The observed differences between political attitudes of SNSD and SDP BiH voters was explained by increasing ethnic tensions in Bosnia Herzegovina in Spring of 2007 and by their essential dissimilarity: SNSD’s primary objective is Republika Srpska and its survival, while SDP BiH insist on unity of Bosnia Herzegovina