Serbia Poll: Life Was Better Under Tito

A poll shows that as many as 81 per cent of Serbians believe they lived best in the former Yugoslavia -"during the time of socialism".

Belgrade

Tanjug

The survey focused on the respondents' views on the transition "from socialism to capitalism", and a clear majority said they trusted social institutions the most during the rule of Yugoslav communist president Josip Broz Tito.
The standard of living during Tito's rule from the Second World War to the 1980s was also assessed as best, whereas the Milosevic decade of the 1990s, and the subsequent decade since the fall of his regime are seen as "more or less the same".

45 percent said they trusted social institutions most under communism with  23 percent chosing the 2001-2003 period when Zoran Djinđic was prime minister. Only 19 per cent selected present-day institutions.

According to the poll coordinator Srecko Mihailovic, "what seems to be most disturbing" in the answers is that 23 per cent of respondents think that Serbia is governed by criminals, 18 per cent believe that the country is run by the president, the government and parliament, the same percentage believe that the country is run by owners of large companies, while 12 per cent think that Serbia is ruled by "the international community".

By saying that life was better in socialism than it is now, the Serbian citizens primarily refer to better economic situation and standard of living, but the majority of them would not go back to that period.

Mihailović said that similar results were obtained in other post-communist countries, as well as in some post-dictatorship regimes, adding that there are various reasons for this.

The poll was conducted by the Center for Social Democratic Studies (CSSD), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung foundation and Center for Free Elections and Democracy (CeSID) in September of this year and it included 1,813 respondents.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/for-simon-poll-serbians-unsure-who-runs-their-country