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Repository. Research Institute University WP 321 EUR .02094 European Institute. Cadmus, on European University Institute, Florence University Access EUI Working Paper RSC No. 94/11 European Open Author(s). Available The 2020. © in Library EUI the by produced version Digitised Repository. Research Institute University European Institute. Cadmus, on University Access European Open Author(s). Available The 2020. © in Library EUI the by produced version Digitised Repository. Research Institute University European Institute. Cadmus, EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE, FLORENCE on University BADIA FIESOLANA, SAN DOMENICO (FI) Access European EUI Working Paper RSC No. 94/11 Open ROBERT SCHUMAN CENTRE The Case ofFormer Yugoslavia Privatization inDisintegrating East European States: Author(s). Available MILICA UVALIC The 2020. © in Library EUI the by WP 3c! 1 .0S093c! 4 EUR^:' J <r V <r O ' \ % Ur produced 1*n '1/* ^ o io v version nV Digitised B l BL\0 Repository. Research Institute University European Institute. Cadmus, on University N oo part paperthis fmay be reproduced in any form Access European Open Printed in Italy in September 1994 without permission o author. the f I -I 50016 San Domenico (FI) European University Institute Author(s). Available A ll reserved. rights © MilicaUvalid BadiaFiesolana The 2020. © in Italy Library EUI the by produced version Digitised 1 Repository. Research PRIVATIZATION IN DISINTEGRATING EAST EUROPEAN STATES: THE CASE OF FORMER YUGOSLAVIA1 Institute Milica Uvalic Institute of Economics Faculty of Political Sciences University of Perugia, Via Pascoli 1-06123 Perugia University 1.Introduction European As other Central and East European countries, Institute. Yugoslavia had in 1988-89 declared its intention to Cadmus, on implement far-reaching economic reforms, with the aim of University moving towards a mixed market economy based on private Access property. From mid-1990, however, increasing political European Open conflicts between the governments of the single republics led to the gradual disintegration of the political and Author(s). economic system, and in January 1992, when Slovenia and Available Croatia were officially recognized as independent states, The 2020. © the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ceased to in Library EUI would like to thank my friends and colleagues from all parts the of former Yugoslavia who have generously provided me with their by publications, government documents, statistical sources or other useful material: Polona Bobnar, Srdjan Bogosavljevic, Veljko Bole, Nevenka Cuckovic, Dinko Dubravcic, Vojo Franicevic, Mitja Gaspari, Smiljan Jurin, Drazen Kalodjera, Vlasta Lang, Joze Mencinger, Bosko Mijatovic, Branko Milanovic, Tea Petrin, Pavle Petrovic, Saska Posarac, Anton Rop, produced Vladimir Sahov, Marko Simoneti, Djordje Suvakovic, Marjan Svetlicic, and Sofia Todorova. I also thank all the participants of the AISSEC Conference (Milano, 30 September 1993) for their valuable critical version comments on an earlier version of the paper, in particular Bruno Dallago, Renzo Daviddi, Mario Ferrero, and Luigi Marcolungo. Digitised exist.2 After the break-up of the country, there has been a 2 Repository. marked differentiation in general economic policies, but in the field of privatization the results obtained have not Research been dissimilar. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the present state Institute of privatization in the successor states of former Yugoslavia. After a brief analysis of the crucial problems initially posed by privatization in Yugoslavia and the University solutions chosen by the federal government in its 1989-90 legislation (part 2), the paper discusses the separate European privatization laws adopted by the states created on the Institute. territory of former Yugoslavia (part 3). Available empirical Cadmus, evidence on the changes in the property structure is then on presented - both initially in Yugoslavia, and thereafter in University its successor states (part 4). Finally, some of the main Access consequences of Yugoslav disintegration for the European Open implementation of privatization are briefly discussed (part 5). Author(s). Available The 2020. 2.The federal legislation on privatization © in The specific questions posed during the privatization debate in Yugoslavia were determined directly by the main Library characteristics of its economic system, based on social EUI property and workers' self-management. Under the system of the by 2The following states were created on the territory of former Yugoslavia: Croatia, Slovenia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia produced (Serbia with its two regions Kosovo and Voivodina, and Montenegro), Macedonia (recognized under the name "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia"), and Bosnia Herzegovina which, according to the latest version proposals, should be divided into three ethnic parts (Serbian, Muslim and Croat). Digitised "social" property, no one in particular had property rights Repository. over enterprise assets, which officially belonged to the whole society. When social property was first introduced in Research the early 1950s, enterprises were given only the right to use socially-owned assets and to appropriate their product, Institute which were initially subject to a capital tax, which was eliminated in 1971. Self-management gave workers the right to decide on enterprise policies, including those regarding University the distribution of enterprise income between wages and accumulation (although subject to certain limits), as well European as the right to a supplementary income from capital (so- Institute. called rewards for "past labour"). Cadmus, The ambiguous property regime in combination with self on University management therefore implied that there was no clear Access distinction between labour and capital remuneration. This European led to the frequently emphasized thesis that in Yugoslavia, Open group property had effectively replaced state property, and that workers had become the real owners of enterprise Author(s). Available assets.^ This interpretation is, however, incorrect; given The 2020. that enterprise property had never been officially © in transferred to any other legal entity, it must have remained effectively (if not officially) in state property. Workers Library were never granted full property rights, as they could not EUI sell the enterprise and appropriate the proceeds, and the the by political authorities had remained responsible for a number of other fundamental issues (see Uvalic, 1992a). produced ^See e.g. Bajt (1968). Many workers in Yugoslavia felt they were version "owners" of their firms, at least for the part of income invested in enterprise assets during the course of years. Digitised Against such an institutional background, the Repository. privatization debate in Yugoslavia brought up a number of specific guestions. In the absence of a concrete holder of Research property rights, who was to be responsible for the sale of social sector firms, and who was to appropriate the Institute proceeds? Who was to take the initiative to privatize enterprises, which officially were no longer in state ownership, but neither the property of the individual firm University nor of its workers? Were primarily workers employed to be offered privileged conditions in acquiring enterprise European assets, given that capital growth over time had been ensured Institute. through workers' investment decisions? But considering that Cadmus, the state and all other citizens had also contributed to on enterprise assets - the state, through the initial transfer University of state capital to enterprises, and later through subsidies Access and other transfers, while citizens, through their savings European Open deposits in bank accounts, which represented an important part of enterprise investment finance - shouldn't they also Author(s). Available have been given a fair share in the privatization of social The 2020. property? The federal government tried to resolve some of © in these controversial issues in the legislation adopted in 1988-1990. Library As a first step in changing the property regime in EUI Yugoslavia, the Enterprise law was adopted at the end of the by 1988,4 which had important implications for both self management and privatization. The general orientation of the produced 4See "Enterprise law". Official Gazette of the Socialist Federal version Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) no. 77, 31 December 1988, and amendments to the law in Official Gazette of SFRY no. 40, 7 July 1989. Digitised law was to limit and eventually abolish self-management, by Repository. replacing the collective responsibility of workers by the individual responsibility of managers/directors and capital Research owners. Moreover, the Enterprise law had diversified both ownership types and enterprise legal forms, thus permitting Institute the commercialization of enterprises,5 and had also enabled forms of "self"-privatization.5 University As a second step, at the end of 1989 the federal government adopted a privatization law,7 * which introduced the possibility for firms to sell social capital to domestic European and foreign buyers (both firms and individuals) through Institute. auctions. However, owing primarily to the lack of enthusiasm Cadmus, on the part of workers, no sales under the law had taken on University place (Milanovic, 1990), so the law was amended in August Access 1990.® According to the new 1990 Federal privatization law, European Open 5Besides the already existing types of