Photo-Fit of the Elite

In our society the elite are still quite successful at evading the attention of researchers. There is little concrete knowledge about how preserved the backbone of the old establishment is; who left, who stayed and who entered the narrowest circles of social elite following turbulent social changes, or what effect, if any, the war had in shaping our society. No one knows for certain whether the "tip of society" has become more pointed than ever in recent years and to what extent the nouveau riche and war profiteers snuggled up to the political elite.

One of the rare systematic attempts to shed some light on the subject of political "elite" in this country was made by Dr. Slobodan Antonic of the Belgrade Institute for Political Studies. Financed by the University of Central Europe, Dr. Antonic's project involved questioning a sample of 200 politicians of various political affiliations which reflected the presence and strength of political parties in the Serbian parliament (similar research has been conducted in recent years in other former communist countries).

On the basis of the results obtained it was possible to identify a kind of photo-fit of an average member of our political elite: he is a graduate with a middle class background, was a long-standing member of the communist party, and considers the creation a strong and stable economy the most important social goal for the next ten years. According to Dr. Antonic, in terms of education, Serbian elite does not lag behind its counterparts in other former communist countries. 27 % of the elite have completed high school or some post-high school education, 56% are graduates, 6% did an MA or MSc, while 11% have a PhD. There are no peasants among them and only 1.5% are factory workers.

This satisfactory picture of the educational level of Serbian political elite does not automatically imply that the current governing clique (as well as a substantial part of the opposition), shows any governing skills or competence which are the main characteristics of a true and modern elite.

New members of the elite are very often recruited according to their political suitability, or they draw their legitimacy to govern from their allegiance to the leader. One of the best examples that even the highest education does not necessarily imply competence is that of one of the former Serbian prime ministers, who, in spite of having a PhD in economics, is unlikely be given the job of running a company.

The research by the Institute for Political Studies also looked at the social background of the current members of the political elite. In 25% of the cases they are sons of factory workers, 23% had fathers with a more specialist vocation, while 17.5% fathers were clerks. One of the author's conclusions is that children of the old political elite are much more interested in elite positions in industry and are not too interested in politics.

In his study, Dr. Slobodan Antonic tried to establish, among other things, the extent to which modern political elite accepts democratic rules of conduct in politics and how present xenophobia and primitive nationalism are among its members. Subjects were offered several statements and hypothetical situations and when the answers were compared to those obtained from ordinary members of the public, according to Dr. Antonic's words, the results were quite striking. Political elite show considerably less inclination for authoritarian political positions than the general public, and is relatively strongly inclined towards democratic rules of conduct. They have also shown that the nationalist and militant euphoria of the early 1990s is gradually fading and that interest in the economy is growing. For example, only 18% of the subjects agreed with the statement that "there is a wide, well organized international conspiracy against Serbia involving a large number of countries", while 32.5 % disagreed entirely. Only 11.5% of the elite believe that "one should never have too much confidence in foreigners", while among ordinary members of the public as many as 48% think that one should not trust foreigners. Less than 60 % of the elite think that "Serbia must become part of the new world order as soon as possible", while 23% were against this suggestion. As the main aim of our society for the next ten years, 64% suggested "the creation of a strong and stable economy". The second most important goal is "a strong state", that is the rule of law, fighting crime and defence.

This recent study looked only at the political elite in Serbia. The last relevant research on the economic elite was published at the end of 1993, and involved a relatively small sample (325 subjects) which limits the validity of any conclusions drawn from it. Dr. Antonic emphasizes that politics is still the main source of power in this country and that the economic elite is only a part of the political one. To illustrate his point, Dr. Antonic cites the example of a young politician who made his name at the time of the 8th Congress only to move, a couple of years later, to the top managerial position in the Serbian oil industry. Today he is a very successful private businessman. Officially, he has no political function; he does not belong to the political elite, and claims not to be member of any political party. None the less, he is certainly part of the ruling elite and is collecting the dividend of his former membership in the establishment.

Few are those who belong to the real economic elite, that is those who created something through their own knowledge, expertise and innovation. Even those who possess these qualities and can thus be considered as part of the economic elite, such as for example Radoje Djukic, minister of trade in the Serbian government, who paved his own way into big business, are likely to go into politics and submit to those who hold real power in their hands. Politics has been for some time now the quickest way to big business. Also the most important business deals in the country are, allegedly, made in the corridors of the Parliament building.

Dr. Mladen Lazic, an economist, dealt with the issue of economic elite in a recently published book "Serbia Between the Past and the Present" (published by the Institute for Social Sciences from Belgrade) which he wrote with a group of colleagues. On the basis of the above mentioned research conducted in 1993, Dr. Lazic concluded that managers of former state-owned companies (and their successors) took most advantage of the possibility of private ownership since it is they who currently own almost half of the bigger private companies in Serbia.

Dr. Mladen Lazic thinks that one could quite confidently claim that the new "private enterprise elite" is in fact a parasite social layer which profits from the adverse socio-economic conditions, demolished legal system, and the important commanding role of the state. Maintenance of these trends would favor the establishment of the new elite with a strong anti-modernization attitude. Even if the war ended and connections with the international community were repaired, little would change in that sense, and as far as an elite which would favor modernization is concerned it appears we will have to wait for a long time. According to Dr. Lazic, at least until a coalition is formed between liberally minded political forces and those members of the private enterprise elite whose business works on the principles of market forces. Other authors are of the somewhat naive opinion that we will have to wait until the false elite steps down and allows the real elite to take over, or until those who have left or are leaving the country decide to return, which sounds a bit Utopian.

In the meantime the "impoverished and declassed" majority of the population can only sit and watch the increasingly sharp tip of the social pyramid, and repeat the old saying to the effect that there is always somebody who profits from war.

Cultural Junk

One of the most prominent TV directors Aleksandar Mandic, who emigrated to the States in 1992. where he now lectures in the TV and Film department of the University of New York, in a recent interview given to the weekly magazine NIN, spoke about our cultural and intellectual elite.

"When talking about culture, we have a junk intellectual elite. It simply can not cope with its obligations. Our top intellectuals, our spiritual leaders are people with no international importance who do not take part in what is going on in the world. Most of them can not even speak a foreign language. Their knowledge has been scraped together and improvised, from within, from prejudice and fear. For me that is disastrous knowledge, and this becomes even more obvious when observed from the outside. The elite of a people has the responsibility take part and be part of the world elite."

In reply to the question about whether the elite here did its best to separate us from the rest of the world, Mandic gave the following answer:

"Unfortunately that is correct. They did that consciously for small personal gain. With words such as people, national interest, higher interest, the past etc. on their lips... What has the Serbian elite accomplished for the Serbian version of the events in Yugoslavia? How come 300 academics have no influence on the European intellectual elite? "

The Elite and the Leader

"When talking about political elite one must bare in mind the 'Milosevic factor' ", Dr. Slobodan Antonic said. "In democratic systems political parties usually proposes potential leader to the electorate, while here, and the same thing happened several times since 1990. it was the leader, Slobodan Milosevic who proposed the party to which he belongs to the electorate and thus enabled it, in each case, to win. The source of legitimacy of our political elite are thus not elections but the leader and the elite's devotion to him. That is a factor that does not fit into a democratic milieu. As things stand at the moment Milosevic can hardly be endangered by the political elite from the opposition parties. Regimes such as this one fall only when the interests of its own political elite are threatened. Causescu was toppled by his own political elite when it realized that it will perish unless it opposes the dictator. They organized a revolt which enabled them to maintain their positions, and did so very successfully."