SLOBODAN (30), is ashamed that he shares the same first name as Serbia's President, but is resigned to the fact that there is little he can do about it. He plies his trade as a "shuttler" between Novi Sad, Belgrade, and the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.

Since the introduction of capitalism and the need to "make a buck" in order to survive, "shuttling" has become one of the fastest growing professions in eastern Europe.

Slobodan earns his living by travelling from Serbia to Bulgaria, buying up consumer items at incredibly cheap prices in Sofia, taking them back by train via Belgrade and selling them on the street markets of Novi Sad.

"Bulgaria's economy is collapsing, there are a lot of goods on sale and very few people have the money to buy them. The Serbs have the money and I provide the service of getting the goods to them," he told me on the overnight Belgrade Sofia express.

Serbia and Bulgaria have seen massive demonstrations against their respective governments in recent weeks, but the marchers have taken to the streets for completely different reasons.

The differences are, perhaps, most vividly explained by the current application to the situation of an old east European political joke.

A Serbian dog meets a Bulgarian dog on the border and asks him why he is going into Serbia. The Bulgarian dog replies that he has heard that in Serbia there is a plentiful supply of sausage, beef, pork, dog biscuits and bones of every kind.

"Your are right," replies the Serbian dog, "we have all those things." The Bulgarian dog is puzzled and asks the Serbian dog why he is travelling into Bulgaria.

"I've been told that in Bulgaria you can bark."

Serbians have demonstrated in vast numbers, not only for the reinstatement of election results giving the opposition victory in 14 of 18 cities and towns, but also for freedom of speech.

A prime target has been the head quarters of the main television station as its news bulletins try to pretend to the rest of the country that no unrest exists in Belgrade.

PEOPLE are watched and spied on, telephones are tapped, all the trappings of authoritarianism have been retained and in some cases augmented. But in spite of recent sanctions most people have few problems in making ends meet. They march in protest against what they sinisterly call "the regime".

Bulgarians march against "the government". They want elections now and have been backed in their request by newly elected President, Mr Petar Stoyanov, who was inaugurated on Sunday in Sofia. Their average wage is around £15 a month, while pensioners have to make do on £9. Mismanagement of the economy has led to inflation of over 300 per cent.

These protests are motivated by a fight for survival rather than for freedom of the media or free speech.

The Bulgarian dog can indeed bark. There is a flourishing free press, the Bulgarian language services of the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Radio France Internationale are broadcast by local radio stations and even the state TV channel reports the news rather than simply gives the party line.

What the two uneasy states have in common is that they are governed by former communists who managed to hold on to power despite the political convulsions in eastern Europe in 1991 and 1992.

Mr Milosevic scrambled to the presidential palace through a remarkable conversion from communism to Serbian nationalism, a move which played no small part in the series of wars and atrocities which ripped the former Yugoslavia apart and cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

Some of those who now oppose him on the streets, while painted in glowing colours at present, have a past which is not all that attractive. In the presidential election of 1990, the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Mr Vuk Draskevic, was even more stridently nationalist than his successful opponent, Mr Milosevic. The other main opposition leader, Mr Zoran Djindjic, spends a lot of time nowadays explaining that he is no longer an ally of former Bosnian Serb leader, Mr Radovan Karadzic.

Bulgaria's experience has been altogether different. Essentially passive by nature, the Bulgarians did, however, join the protests which convulsed eastern Europe and they succeeded in ousting the hard line communist leader, Mr Todor Zhivkov, in 1989. Mr Zhivkov's communist successor, Mr Petar Mladenov, was in turn ousted after protests in 1990 and replaced as president by an opposition politician, Mr Zhelyu Zhelev.

In Bulgaria, however, the real power rests in parliament and here, since the introduction of democracy, former communists have held a majority. Thus Bulgaria and Serbia, like Russia, continue to be ruled by communists turned capitalists. In all three cases corruption has eaten its way into the heart of the government, leading to economic crisis.

At the inauguration of Bulgaria's President, Mr Stoyanov, on Sunday it was apparent that the ruling former communists were badly split. Hardliners clung to the idea that no elections would be held until December, liberals quite plainly stated they were prepare to acknowledge the inevitable victory of the opposition.

Caretaker Prime Minister, Mr Zhan Videnov, who admitted on Friday that the country was bankrupt, simply stormed out of parliament after the inauguration ceremony without stating his view to anyone.

IN theory, Bulgaria's demonstrators have less democratic legitimacy than their Serbian counterparts and they are also smaller in number. Their chances of achieving their aims, however, appear to be much better than those of the Serbians.

Firstly, their demands are simply for early elections, by May at the latest, and secondly the ex communists they face are far less authoritarian than those faced by the Serbs.

Slobodan Milosevic is a tough, old fashioned dictator, whose respect for democracy is minimal. He comes from an odd family background: both his parents and one uncle committed suicide. Many observers believe he is prepared to kill Yugoslavia rather than give in to pressure from the international community.

In Bulgaria, the differences are now between those who want elections in May and those who want elections in December. In the meantime the IMF waits in the wings.