IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/3zt62_v1.html

An Unusual Marriage of Deregulation and Populism: The Case of Regulatory Politics in Serbia

Author

Listed:
  • Tomic, Slobodan
  • Dragicevic, Ognjen

Abstract

This article examines the transformation of Serbia’s regulatory state under the populist regime of Aleksandar Vučić (2012–2025), a period marked by democratic backsliding and heavy reliance on foreign direct investment (FDI). Focusing on competition policy and a subsidy programme for foreign investors, it shows how the regime has reshaped the regulatory state in ways distinct from other autocratic populist contexts. Core institutional carriers of the regulatory state have remained in place as non-majoritarian institutions and were even granted greater de jure insulation from government, yet in practice they have been undermined and their authority - along with that of other institutions in the wider regulatory ecosystem (law enforcement bodies, inspectorates, and others) - systematically suppressed. The result is an eroded, hybridised model of the regulatory state: the government has carved out a role for itself to decisively shape and direct sectoral policy, often in an arbitrary manner, with a distinct form of deregulation, namely through the outright non-enforcement of substantial regulatory standards.

Suggested Citation

  • Tomic, Slobodan & Dragicevic, Ognjen, 2025. "An Unusual Marriage of Deregulation and Populism: The Case of Regulatory Politics in Serbia," SocArXiv 3zt62_v1, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:3zt62_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/3zt62_v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/68d221a7abb4a75a5553da28/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/3zt62_v1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert H. Wade, 2018. "The Developmental State: Dead or Alive?," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(2), pages 518-546, March.
    2. Martino Maggetti, 2025. "Introduction to Regulation and Governance," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 22026.
    3. Levy, Brian & Spiller, Pablo T, 1994. "The Institutional Foundations of Regulatory Commitment: A Comparative Analysis of Telecommunications Regulation," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 201-246, October.
    4. Steve Tombs, 2016. "Making better regulation, making regulation better?," Policy Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 332-349, July.
    5. Wade, Robert H., 2018. "The developmental state: dead or alive?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87356, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Martin Rode & Julio Revuelta, 2015. "The Wild Bunch! An empirical note on populism and economic institutions," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 73-96, February.
    7. Mauricio I. Dussauge-Laguna, 2022. "The promises and perils of populism for democratic policymaking: the case of Mexico," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 55(4), pages 777-803, December.
    8. Péter Ákos Bod, 2024. "Return of activist state in a former transition star: the curious case of Hungary," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(2), pages 262-279, February.
    9. Ivan Stosic & Draško Nikolić & Mihajlo Djukic, 2011. "Attractiveness of Serbia for Foreign Direct Investments: tendencies, Obstacles and Perspectives," Book Chapters, in: Mirjana Radovic Markovic & Srdjan Redzepagic & João Sousa Andrade & Paulino Teixeira (ed.), Serbia and the European Union: Economic Lessons from the New Member States, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 47-60, Institute of Economic Sciences.
    10. Gábor Scheiring, 2021. "Varieties of Dependency, Varieties of Populism: Neoliberalism and the Populist Countermovements in the Visegrád Four," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(9), pages 1569-1595, October.
    11. Fulya Apaydin & Mehmet Kerem Çoban, 2023. "The political consequences of dependent financialization: Capital flows, crisis and the authoritarian turn in Turkey," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(3), pages 1046-1072, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrés Madariaga, 2020. "Targeting Industrial Policy on Business Services: Rationales and Design for the Case of Chile," SPRU Working Paper Series 2020-06, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    2. Shapiro, Daniel & Estrin, Saul & Carney, Michael & Liang, Steven, 2024. "Business groups and export performance: the role of coordination failures and institutional configurations," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119277, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Gary Gereffi, 2020. "What does the COVID-19 pandemic teach us about global value chains? The case of medical supplies," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 3(3), pages 287-301, September.
    4. Dünhaupt, Petra & Gräf, Helena & Jiménez, Valeria & Jungmann, Benjamin, 2025. "Industrial policy space in emerging economies: The case of Chile's lithium industry and the energy and raw materials chapter in the EU-Chile free trade agreement," IPE Working Papers 251/2025, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    5. Győrffy, Dóra, 2023. "Iparpolitika és akkumulátorgyártás Magyarországon és Svédországban [Industrial Policy and EV Battery Manufacturing in Hungary and Sweden]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(3), pages 245-273.
    6. Algers, Jonas & Gong, Jindan & Nykvist, Björn & Åhman, Max, 2025. "Competition and climate policy in the steel transition: Comparing costs and subsidies in the US and the EU," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    7. Klingler-Vidra, Robyn & Chalmers, Adam William & Wade, Robert H., 2025. "Who’s governing the market? bringing the individual back into the study of the developmental state," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    8. Tshedza Tshivhasa Sikhwari & Masa Sylvester Motadi, 2024. "Ideologies that South Africa can borrow from selected high-growth nations in efforts to re-establish its developmental state model," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 13(7), pages 391-399, October.
    9. Bin-bin Yang & Sang-Do Park, 2025. "Evolving Innovation Ecosystems: Longitudinal Insights into the Triple Helix Model and Enterprise Innovation in China," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(4), pages 21582440251, November.
    10. Fu-Hsuan Chen & Hao-Ren Liu, 2021. "Evaluation of Sustainable Development in Six Transformation Fields of the Central Taiwan Science Park," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-14, April.
    11. Gabor, Daniela, 2023. "The (European) Derisking State," SocArXiv hpbj2, Center for Open Science.
    12. Pritish Behuria & Andy Sumner, 2025. "Development Studies in the Mid-2020s: Reflecting on the Past, Looking to the Future," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 37(2), pages 267-282, April.
    13. Stöllinger, Roman, 2021. "Testing the Smile Curve: Functional Specialisation and Value Creation in GVCs," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 93-116.
    14. Armando Razo, 2021. "Network structure and performance of crony capitalism systems credible commitments without democratic institutions," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 115-137, October.
    15. Pape, Fabian & Petry, Johannes, 2024. "East Asia and the politics of global finance: a developmental challenge to the neoliberal consensus?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118296, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Ioanna Kastelli & Lukasz Mamica & Keun Lee, 2023. "New perspectives and issues in industrial policy for sustainable development: from developmental and entrepreneurial to environmental state," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-25, April.
    17. Daniela Gabor, 2021. "The Wall Street Consensus," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(3), pages 429-459, May.
    18. Jacopo Canello & Fabio Landini & Luigi Tredicine, 2025. "Beyond the giants: the hidden role of micro and small enterprises in GVC reconfiguration dynamics," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(3), pages 251-269, September.
    19. Gabor, Daniela, 2020. "The Wall Street Consensus," SocArXiv wab8m, Center for Open Science.
    20. Isaac Khambule, 2021. "Capturing South Africa's developmental state: State‐society relations and responses to state capture," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(4), pages 169-179, October.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:3zt62_v1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.