[PEN-L:1851] Yugoslav inequality

["Rosser Jr, John Barkley" <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>]

     I feel a need to express some further observations on
this topic that came up in conjunction with the social
democracy thread.  Why did regional inequalities get so bad
in Yugoslavia?
     One aspect of this that is especially puzzling is that
there was quite a bit of regional redistribution under the
old regime.  Indeed this was one of the grievances of the
secessionists in both Slovenia and Croatia, the desire to
stop sending funds to the poorer southern republics and
autonomous republics.
     Which raises the question as to why did the sent funds
fail to help?  Conservatives might argue that this is what
one should expect, that people do not do well who are being
given handouts.  Another argument has to do with corruption
and mafias.  After all, nearby Italy has also had a major
divergence between north and south in per capita income
since WW II with many blaming the mafia for the Mezzogiorno
problem.
     It is curious that more market capitalist economies
have had more regional convergence, e.g. the catching up by
the South in the US, as have the more command socialist
type economies such as the USSR or China under Mao.  Of
course in China under Mao the development of the interior
was partly driven by defense motives.  The local
self-sufficiency laid the foundation for growth later with
the TVEs.
     In the old USSR there was a successful effort to
develop hinterlands, including the far north, the far east,
and Central Asia.  The "conservatism" of the Central Asian
nations, maintaining much of the previous system and
resisting Islamic fundamentalism must be at least partly
attributed to this successful development, although some of
it was ecologically disastrous as in the Aral Sea region,
and there is much local despotism by leaders, many simply
left over from the ancien regime.  But in Russia the
hinterland is now suffering and badly.
     Anyway, I don't have any answers as to why the
regional inequality problem was so bad in Yugoslavia, but I
am skeptical that one can attribute Slovenia's success to
an alleged exploitation of the poorer regions of the former
nation state.
Barkley Rosser

--
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
rosserjb@xxxxxxx