Post-Socialist Transition in Serbia and Its Unsustainable Path

Abstract

Since the beginning of its post-socialist transition, Serbia has been going through a major political and economic crisis, thus isolated from the mainstream trends of the European integration and convergence. The country's comparative advantages and competitiveness have worsened in terms of two key aspects, that is, its structural qualities and its territorial capital. The economic recovery after the year 2000 assumed a form of “growth without development”, mostly based on poorly legitimized transition reforms, whereby Serbia's inherent unsustainable spatial development patterns have been perpetuated. Today, Serbia finds itself in the position of an economic, ecological and financial semi-colony of a few powerful international political, economic and financial actors, paralleled by the collapse of its strategic thinking, research and governance. Rather bleak development prospects for Serbia call for prompt further research on predictable development scenarios. Therefore, we have discussed the key issues in the current planning system and practice and analysed the basic elements of the prospective future using the scenario approach.

Acknowledgements

This contribution contains some of the findings from two scientific research projects financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia in the period 2010–2014, viz., Sustainable spatial development of Danubian area in Serbia (no. 36036), and Role and implementation of national spatial plan and regional development documents in the renewal of strategic research, thinking and governance in Serbia (no. 47014).