Blocked Transition And Post-Socialist Transformation: Serbia in the Nineties

This paper is showing that Serbia in the nineties was an interesting case of postsocialist transformation in spite of the greatly blocked transition. The key sign of the post-socialist transformation has been the formation of a new transformative social force – formation of entrepreneurs and of the strata of social owners. Initial transformation of ownership relations in Serbia began in the 1990-1991. period, with limited privatization of some 40% of all former “socially owned” enterprises . Privatization of such firms was practically blocked in 1992-2000. period. Some comments on ownership transformation after the regime change at the end of year 2000 are given in the paper. There was an autonomous growth of the private sector during the nineties generated by the formation of some 200.000 new private firms. It was shown in the paper that some branches, like retail trade, have been de facto privatized thanks to the predominance in trade business of new private retail trade firms. Social features of new entrepreneurs in Serbia have been analyzed, based on author’ s surveys. Positive impact of new entrepreneurs has been not only in generating and enforcing systemic changes by the end of nineties, but also in preventing overall aggravation of living conditions of people in Serbia in this period. New entrepreneurs were spreading new life orientations, innovativeness, readiness to take responsibility for one’s life, especially among the young generations. The author believes that post-socialist transformation in the nineties facilitated regime change in the Fall of year 2000.