Basic Features of the Transition from Nominal Socialism to Political Capitalism: The Case of Serbia

This text reconstructs the two decade long period of the transition from nominal socialism to political – criminal and corruptive – capitalism in Serbia. The analysis covers the three most important social subsystems: political, economic and cultural. It demonstrates that the new capitalist and nationalist orthodoxy led on the one hand to the replacement of old “communist” irrationalities with new neoliberal ones and on the other hand to the destruction of healthy economic structures and civilizational accomplishments from the previous system. A special accent is placed upon the unbroken historical pattern of petrifaction of certain social structures over the long term, regardless of seemingly radical political changes. The article points out that in order to pursue its own material interests, the governing nomenklatura carried out the transition process from a one party to a multiparty system in a systematic way, from an organized and relatively stable economy based on industry to a devastated and parasitical economy, entirely dependent on foreign investment, as well as from cultural modernism to retrograde traditionalism.