"It is not enough to change." power, but also the system", is an assertion that can be heard very often in the liberal part of the public, especially when interpreting requests rebellious students. That claim, however, is not self-evident and should be clarified
It goes without saying that the "system" cannot change without change ove authorities that - and this goes without saying - neglected the public interest (the interest of the citizens) and adapted the "system" (the state) to themselves. In other words, the state works for the party and individuals from that party (and not for the citizens), and therefore the state has ceased to be a state, a political creation, a public organization, and has become a private property (fiefdom).
If it is not a public creation (if it is not political), there is no state. Then, for example, institutions such as the police, army, prosecutor's office or intelligence services do not work in the interests of citizens, but in the interests of a small group of people who usurped power.
If, for example, it is threatened to use a military unit (specialized in protecting the president) to deal with its own citizens (students), this means that the purpose of the army has changed, i.e. it does not protect citizens from the external enemy, but is used to maintain private power and the privileges that follow.
If, for example, the intelligence and counter-intelligence services do not engage in information activities for the benefit of the citizens, but illegally subject those same citizens to measures for the benefit of the persons who privatized the state, then, once again, it is a question of the transformation of a public institution into a private organization.
Public and private system
If, therefore, we call a public organization a system, then we are talking about a kind of system without a system. A private organization can also establish some kind of system - a mafia organization also establishes a system, but it is a system opposed to the public interest - but here the emphasis is exclusively on the public organization, that is, on the political system, which, however, no longer exists.
Hence the dilemma of what is meant when talking about changing the system.
A precise answer would be that the citizens are looking for the establishment of a public (political) system, instead of a private one that is active and does not work in the interests of the citizens. Hence the constant attempts to depoliticize the public space: the president is inclined to notice that the place for students is at the faculties (where they have to study, study and only study, just like he did and here he is now, what is he missing) and not in the public space which is, as is obvious, reserved only for him.
Therefore, the students are turning against the system that has filled the public space, the only thing is that this system is not public, but private. Non-political. A system based on privileges, on an institutional arrangement.
"Changing the system", to that extent, means "withdrawing the private system and establishing a public organization under the control of citizens". "Change", in this case, means "establishment", "constitution". Hence the convenient ambiguity of the term constitution: order and constitution at the same time. Citizens demand the order established in the constitution, in the contract between citizens and the government, which (the contract) limits the government in its actions. The Constitution is, therefore, a negative quantity that protects citizens from arbitrary (private) actions of the authorities. Respecting the constitution means respecting public order.
If the constitution, as in Serbia, has been trampled upon, if the republic (principle of separation of powers) has been destroyed, and the institutions have been deprived of their public character, then the demand for a change in the system means a demand for the establishment of a free public.
For the republic against the dictatorship
The citizens of Serbia have no revolutionary ambitions to replace one public order (system) with another. After all, strictly speaking, only a republic is a system that rests on a free public.
The citizens of Serbia are fighting against dictatorship (private system), and for the establishment of a republic (public system), for the establishment of a system with free public space, division of powers (legislative, executive and judicial, so in healthy republics the chief prosecutor does not hide from the public, but does her job in the interest of the citizens; to be precise, she does not do her job in the interest of a private group of people) and institutions as mediators between the elected government and the citizens. Simple.