Klaus BUCHENAU

University of Regensburg

klaus.buchenau@geschichte.uni-regensburg.de 

The Third Path into the Twilight? Corruption in Socialist Yugoslavia

Abstract:

Corruption in socialist  Yugoslavia  was  a  specific phenomenon when compared to the inter-war period or to post-socialism. In contrast to liberalism, communist ideology did not support an understanding of corruption as a problem of its own but tended to see political and material “deviations” as originating from the same root – i. e., from a lack of political morale. The League of Communists failed to live up to its role as an educator of society, since it was trapped between declarative moral rigorism and the fact that material need and greed could be satisfied best by becoming a party member.

Key words: corruption, Yugoslavia, Serbia, communism, clientelism

Summary

Socialist Yugoslavia developed, as other real socialist states did, a specific understanding of corruption, which was less technical than in liberal-capitalist societies and more intensively tied to morale and ideology. While a good communist was supposed to be non-corrupt by definition, functionaries could use a taintless political reputation for obtaining material gains, especially in the housing sector and on the job “market”. Corrupt practices, as it seems, were less monetarized than in interwar Yugoslavia and rather concentrated on non-monetary exchanges. During its early years, socialist Yugoslavia was proud of applying extremely hard measures even against petty corruption, but this vigour waned as the system became more liberal. Mature Yugoslav socialism offered ample opportunities for self-enrichment especially for higher ranking members of the League of Communists, though this enrichment was, by standards of both pre- and post-socialist realities, still rather modest. Yugoslav anti-corruption campaigns were only occasional and careful not to discredit the most high-ranking institutions of the state, including state president Josip Broz Tito. Though this article does not include a systematic monitoring of the Yugoslav press on the corruption issue, it is clear that anti-corruption was not driven by civil society but was rather an expression of frictions within elite groups which occasionally battled each other by claiming the corruption of the respective others. All in all, socialist Yugoslavia should neither be labelled as a “school of corruption” responsible for post-socialist corruption, nor was it an example for sustainable anti-corruption.