An Unusual Marriage of Deregulation and Populism: The Case of Regulatory Politics in Serbia

Slobodan Tomic and Ognjen Dragicevic

No 3zt62_v1, SocArXiv from Center for Open Science

Abstract: This article examines the transformation of Serbia’s regulatory state under the populist regime of Aleksandar Vučić (2012–2025), a period marked by democratic backsliding and heavy reliance on foreign direct investment (FDI). Focusing on competition policy and a subsidy programme for foreign investors, it shows how the regime has reshaped the regulatory state in ways distinct from other autocratic populist contexts. Core institutional carriers of the regulatory state have remained in place as non-majoritarian institutions and were even granted greater de jure insulation from government, yet in practice they have been undermined and their authority - along with that of other institutions in the wider regulatory ecosystem (law enforcement bodies, inspectorates, and others) - systematically suppressed. The result is an eroded, hybridised model of the regulatory state: the government has carved out a role for itself to decisively shape and direct sectoral policy, often in an arbitrary manner, with a distinct form of deregulation, namely through the outright non-enforcement of substantial regulatory standards.

Date: 2025-09-23
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://osf.io/download/68d221a7abb4a75a5553da28/

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:socarx:3zt62_v1

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/3zt62_v1

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in SocArXiv from Center for Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by OSF ().