Social Policy or Vote-Buying: Recent Cases of Serbia and Montenegro

Abstract

The paper examines recent social interventions in Serbia and Montenegro, a Montenegrin tax reform aiming to increase salaries and a Serbian-wide scheme of cash transfers. These cases are examined through the prism of populism and political pragmatism trying to show how social policies and social interventions are prone to be used as part of the efforts to generate wide electoral support. The paper discusses social policies in the post-communist environment arguing that communism generated a set of norms and expectations that make social policies in Central and Eastern Europe more vulnerable to being manipulated for acquiring political gain than in some other countries. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to the need for more serious and more long-term social planning which will not be subordinated to the short-term political goals. Only with that being achieved, countries in the Western Balkan will be able to see higher socio-economic progress.