Slobodan Cvejić, director of research of SeConS, presented findings of the study „Informal Practices of Capturing Economic Resources by Political Elites: Exploring Party Patronage in Kosovo and Serbia”, conducted within the Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans (RRPP) in 2015.
At a round table entitled “Informal Practices of Capturing Economic Resources by Political Elites: Exploring Party Patronage in Kosovo and Serbia”, organised by SeConS in cooperation with Transparency International (TI) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, representatives of relevant civil society organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, international institutions, and academic community discussed the political economy, political clientelism, and party patronage in the countries of South-eastern Europe.
Slobodan Cvejić, director of research of SeConS, stated that political clientelism, which to a lesser extent regularly occurs in all political systems in the world, from less developed to more developed democracies, becomes dangerous when it reaches a larger scale. “Like that it competes with the formal system which exists in a certain society and which should enable its development and welfare of all its citizens”, said Cvejić, and added that through political clientelism public resources are greatly abused by political and economic elites: “We cannot say that is the case with all members of the political and economic elites, but the study in Serbia revealed that it takes a huge scale, and that through the structure of political parties certain actors are being socialised – those who will participate in that system and who will very devotedly perform their roles, which as a final outcome have the ones on the top of the pyramid having most advantages from the functioning of that system ”. As Cvejić explains, on top of the pyramid are people from the top of political parties, directors, or people performing functions in big and important public enterprises, on both the national and local level, as smaller elements of that pyramid are being formed in individual cities and municipalities as well. It is therefore necessary to empower independent bodies, he stresses: “Ombudsman, the state auditor, and trustees for protection of various rights, should be the bodies which will have the greatest impact and whose decisions will be respected more consistently.” In this way we can sow the healthy seed in the institutional system which will contribute to other institutions changing in the direction of better welfare of all citizens. Naturally, this is not an easy process, and in that sense these independent institutions surely need the help of the civil society, non-governmental organisations which advocate for the improvement of citizens’ lives in various ways”, stated the director of research of SeConS.
At the round table results of the research “Bosnia and Herzegovina as a prisoner of political economy and what should be done”, conducted by Srđan Blagovčanin and Boris Divjak together were presented.
