Der dritte Weg ins Zwielicht? Korruption in Tito-Jugoslawien

Abstract

This article shows that corruption in socialist Yugoslavia was a specific phenomenon when compared to the inter-war period or to post-socialism. In contrast to liberalism, communist ideology did not support an understanding of corruption as a problem of its own but tended to see political and material “deviations” as originating from the same root – i.e. from a lack of political morale. The League of Communists failed to live up to its role as an educator of society, since it was trapped between declarative moral rigorism and the fact that material need and greed could be satisfied best by becoming a party member. Corruption practices often did not involve bribes but still fit into Transparency International’s broad definition of corruption as the “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”, in particular for obtaining rare goods such as apartments, jobs or raw materials. While the anticorruption discourse in socialist Yugoslavia was often linked to anti-bureaucratic, anti-elitist and sometimes to dogmatic communist stances, liberal remedies such as transparent and regular procedures were also discussed and applied, though less frequently. The article is based on archival sources from the League of Communists and other Yugoslav institutions. Since the research was centered on Serbia, the majority of concrete examples come from this republic.