Abstract
This chapter argues that in some of the successor states of former Yugoslavia an economic system of political capitalism has replaced the former economic system of socialist self-management. The chapter focuses on the examples of Croatia and Serbia using a case-study approach. In the former country, the commanding heights of the economy were captured during the wars of the 1990s by new elites of returning emigres and managers without strong connections to the former communist party. In the latter the old elites were reproduced under the period of sanctions, sanctions-busting and the development of organised crime networks. Both are examples of variants of a system of political capitalism in which a ruling political elite dominates the economy, extracting quasi-rents and undermining productivity and economic growth. In contrast, in Slovenia, a form of coordinated market economy emerged from the old self-management system. It was not significantly affected by the Yugoslav conflicts and became an EU member state in 2004. These examples suggest that political capitalism is not a natural consequence of the transition from self-management, but rather a consequence mediated by the effect of war, conflict and sanctions.
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Notes
- 1.
Cvijanović and Redžepagić (2011) characterised the former socialist system in Croatia has as one of “political capitalism” and the system that emerged from it as “clientelistic” or “crony” capitalism. In my view, it is misconceived to call the former system a capitalist system. Certainly, there was a high degree of political control over enterprise autonomy, and this was carried over into the emerging capitalist system in the 1990s.
- 2.
Boduszynski (2010) argues that by the end of the 1990s and early 2000s Slovenia had achieved a regime type that could be characterised as “substantive democracy”, Croatia as “simulated democracy”, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (today consisting separately of Servia and Montenegro) as “populist authoritarianism” and Macedonia (today North Macedonia) as “illegitimate democracy”.
- 3.
Employees were offered discounts on the purchase of shares depending on the length of service, while the general public could buy shares at their full price.
- 4.
Under the former Yugoslav system, “agrokombinats” were large integrated farms that managed a variety of agricultural, food processing, marketing and transport assets in order to gain economies of scale and scope.
- 5.
I am grateful to Ivana Prica for pointing out this interpretation of the data.
- 6.
Croatian Competition Agency, 2014, p. 20.
- 7.
Andrew MacDowell “Agrokor-Mercator deal creates food and retail combine with €7bn sales”, Financial Times, 19 June 2013.
- 8.
IMF (2018).
- 9.
Klepo et al. (2017) Slučaj Agrokor: Kriza najveće hrvatske kompanije [The Case of Agrokor: the Crisis of the Largest Croatian Company], Zagreb: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
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Bartlett, W. (2021). The Yugoslav Successor States: From Self-Management Socialism to Political Capitalism. In: Andreff, W. (eds) Comparative Economic Studies in Europe. Studies in Economic Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48295-4_14
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