The Recruitment of the Economic Elite in Serbia. Continuity and Changes

This essay analyses data on changes in the recruitment patterns of Serbia's economic elite in the past twenty-odd years, from the breakdown of the socialist order to the present. The analysis presented is based on surveys compiled at the end of socialism in 1989, at the beginning of accelerated postsocialist transformation in 2003, and at the time of the stabilization of the capitalist order in 2012. Patterns of intragenerational and intergenerational mobility are analysed. The analysis seeks to identify possible significant differences between recruitment patterns of the economic elite in the period of blocked transformation in Serbia (1989-2000) and the period in which social relations characteristic of a market economy were formed. These differences prove to be largest within two spheres: the exclusion of possibilities for ascent of members of lower social strata to the elite, and a substantial decrease in the conversion of political positions into control of economic resources. Also examined are changes in the importance of individual channels of mobility, especially education and party membership

Economic geography · Economics · Elite · Political science · Politics · Law · Regional Development and Management Studies