The Yugoslav Successor States: From Self-Management Socialism to Political Capitalism

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.