Serbia is a multi-party parliamentary democracy. 

According to the 2006 Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, “The Republic of Serbia is a state of Serbian people and all citizens who live in it, based on the rule of law and social justice, principles of civil democracy, human and minority rights and freedoms, and commitment to European principles and values”.  

The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia is the main legislative body of Serbia. The National Assembly is the supreme representative body and constitutional and legislative power holder. It consists of 250 members, who are elected proportionally on direct elections by secret ballot, on 4-year terms. By means of majority votes of all deputies, the National Assembly elects the President who presides over the sessions and one or more Vice Presidents of the National Assembly. 

The National Assembly adopts and amends the Constitution, elects the Government, appoints and dismisses judges of the Constitutional Court, elects four members of the High Judicial Council, four members of the High Prosecutorial Council, elects the Supreme Public Prosecutor, and decides on the termination of their office, the Governor of the National Bank of Serbia and other state officials. All decisions are made by a majority vote of members at the session at which the majority of members are present, except for amending the Constitution, when a two-thirds majority is needed. 

The Government holds executive power in the Republic of Serbia. It consists of the Prime Minister, one or more Vice Presidents and ministers. The Prime Minister is the head of Government. Ministers account to the Prime Minister, Government and National Assembly for their work and situation within the competence of their ministries. 

The Government accounts to the National Assembly for the policy of the Republic of Serbia, the enforcement of laws and other general acts of the National Assembly and the work of the public administration bodies. 

By the Constitution, the President of the Republic shall express state unity of the Republic of Serbia. The President of the Republic is elected in direct elections, by secret ballot, to a 5-year term and is limited by the Constitution to a maximum of two terms. 

Local self-government units, which have the status of legal entities, play a key role in the country’s territorial organisation. They autonomously regulate the organisation and competences of their bodies and public services. 

According to the Law on the Territorial Organisation of the Republic of Serbia, all regulations of territorial units and other important issues for the territorial organisation of the Republic of Serbia have been defined. The territorial organisation of the Republic of Serbia consists of municipalities, cities and the city of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. These local self-government units are also territorial units. The basic level of self-government is a municipality. The territory of a municipality, city and the city of Belgrade consists of settlements or areas of cadastral municipalities that are part of these local government units.  The boundaries of local government units are defined by the borders of the corresponding cadastral municipalities within their territory. According to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (Statistical Yearbook, 2024), the country has 197 municipalities, 29 of which are towns. City territories have more than 100,000 inhabitants. They are similar to municipalities – each one has an assembly, a mayor and a budget of its own. They are usually divided into “city municipalities”.