Changes in the recruitment patterns of the economic and political elites in Serbia

In this paper the changing patterns of economic and political elite recruitment in Serbia are studied on the basis of three sets of data, collected in our surveys done in 1989, 1993 and 2004. Our hypothesis was that elite recruitment patterns changed after the political regime change in 2000, but in a different direction compared to the period of the 1990s. From a long-term perspective, we expect continuing increases in the relevance of higher education for elite recruitment, and equalization of the relevance of higher education for both the political and economic elites. On the other hand, we expect decreasing relevance for political affiliation among the economic elite, accompanied by an increasing importance of social networking during the period of a prolonged weak institutional environment. In order to test our general hypothesis we describe inter- and intra-generational patterns of recruitment. The relevance of education, party membership and networking as mobility channels is analyzed by model of logistic regression. We also compare changes in patterns of elites’ recruitment with changing mobility patterns of social classes in Serbia, 1989-2004