SERBIA WOULD BE a democracy except for one thing: The voters aren't interested.

Here's a country that emerged from the nightmare of the 1990s with a bloodless rebellion, a drive to reform, and a renunciation of war. It was dawn in the Balkans.

The storm clouds have been building ever since.

Twice this fall, Serb voters have trekked to the polls to try to elect a president - or they were supposed to, anyway. But both times the turnout fell below 50 percent and the election was declared invalid.

There has been a range of factors - an unappealing set of candidates, a semi- organized boycott, a snowstorm the last time - but what it comes down to is that ordinary Serbs are less than enchanted with a democratic system that has given them little besides incessant squabbling and economic hard times.

This is not the sort of dramatic or violent crisis that the former Yugoslavia grew accustomed to - and that's all to the good - but in its own quiet way it bodes very ill for the future.

What happens now? No one is sure. The current president, Milan Milutinovic, steps down Jan. 5 - at which point he is expected to surrender to the Hague tribunal, to stand trial for crimes committed in a more bloodthirsty era. The speaker of the parliament will probably fill in for him, and may or may not schedule yet another election.

The factions will keep jockeying. Right now, the chief contender for the presidency, Vojislav Kostunica, has vowed to mount a campaign in parliament to topple the Cabinet of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. That would make life easier for Mr. Kostunica, but would do little to inspire the average voter.

Until earlier this year Mr. Djindjic was carrying out a program of economic reforms, with the backing of Western lending institutions. They had gotten to the point where life was worse for everyone, and then they stalled, and now, in the political mire, they've been forgotten.

Other countries in Eastern Europe have shown a capacity to muddle on when things go sour. But other countries in Eastern Europe have not had the kind of recent history that, in Serbia's case, resulted in the creation of an International War Crimes Tribunal.

The Balkans are still a dangerous and bitter part of the world. Al-Qaida operatives have had a presence in Muslim parts of Bosnia, where the Serbs inflicted so much pain. The Serbs, for their part, have been accused of helping Iraq prepare for an American bombardment, based on their experience during the Kosovo conflict of 1999.

The last thing Europe needs is a Serbia slipping into chaos and bitterness, after the brief outburst of hope for a better future that came with the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic two years ago. But it would be foolish to suppose that it can't happen.