Collapse of strategic thinking, research and governance in Serbia and possible role of the spatial plan of the Republic of Serbia (2010) in its renewal

Abstract

Early reforms in Serbia (Yugoslavia) were announced immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. From the beginning of the 1990s few attempts of the kind announced have taken place, and, altogether, they still remain more or less uncompleted. To a large extent, this is a result of choices taken by the political and economic elites, in effect without any broader public dialogue undertaken about the strategic directions, contents and means for the implementation of such reforms. So far no overall societal consensus on the key strategic issues has been reached whatsoever, and, therefore, the choices in question have simply been imposed on the society at large by decree. The economic recovery from 2000 onwards, while fairly dynamic, has still been insufficient, and more or less assumes the form of ?growth without development?. Serbia still keeps one of the most dissipating and non-sustainable economies, social services and spatial development patterns in Europe. Its ?post-socialist Argonautics? has been facing a number of difficulties, also exacerbated by a lack of adequate institutional and organizational adjustments, as well as by a lack of proper cognitive and heuristic support. The spatial and environmental planning practice represents a mixture of old habits and substandard approaches, with only some new initiatives. There have been few attempts to redirect the improper development path, however, which have so far either failed of been uncompleted, mostly reflecting the collapse an overall collapse of strategic thinking, research and governance in this country.