Working class in post-socialist transformation: Serbia and Croatia compared

摘要

Serbia and Croatia, both actors in civil wars during the 1990s, startedudtheir transformation by emerging from the same model of “liberal socialism”.udThe two countries had authoritarian regimes with nationalistic mobilization, andudtheir respective transformations developed under the control of their politicaludoligarchies. In addition to many similarities, there are also important differencesudwhich influenced their transformations. Croatia embarked upon its modernizationudearlier than Serbia, and was more developed economically. In contrast to Serbia,udwhich suffered international political and economic isolation during the 1990s,udCroatia enjoyed external support (making it more susceptible to external influences,udto some extent) and moreover, was more opened to the world economically. Thisudresulted in a faster economic recovery for Croatia, and accounts for the country’sudsubstantially more favorable position in the EU integration processes. Based onudjoint research carried out in 1989 and 2003, this paper tries to establish the degreeudof influence of the stated similarities and differences on changes in position of theudworking class in these countries, and moreover, on class homogeneity (measuredudin terms of economic differentiation, vertical mobility, value orientations, andudtrade union and political organization).