Analysis of the Public Sector and Possibilities for Its Defense
Vuk Vuković [Center for Social Analysis / Gerusija]
Analysis of the Public Sector and Possibilities for Its Defense
Lecturer: Vuk Vuković (Center for Social Analysis / Gerusija)
May 10, 2014
The public sector has become a central topic of political and economic debate in Serbia. We frequently hear statements such as: “A bloated administration and loss-making public enterprises are the greatest burden on Serbia’s economy in a time of crisis…” This discourse—produced by neoliberal promoters of “reforms”—serves as a justification for reducing the administrative part of the public sector to its bare minimum, thereby transferring a large portion of its functions to private companies. At the same time, it opens the way for the privatization of profitable public enterprises. Another problem regularly invoked to legitimize the dismantling of the public sector is the continuous hiring of an ever-growing number of party members. As a result, the public sector becomes the main resource of political parties, while conflicts among different parties over this “spoils system” create constant instability in its functioning.
The lecture presented key arguments for critiquing policies that portray the public sector as inefficient, wasteful, or even “(crypto-)socialist,” followed by an articulation of possible strategies for its redefinition and defense. In this sense, the analysis was grounded in concrete, practical considerations—similar to those used in neoliberal proposals—not in terms of what an “ideal” public sector ought to be, but rather what can already be done to preserve its positive socio-economic functions and prevent the social catastrophe that will follow if neoliberal solutions are implemented.
The lecture was organized as part of the public program of the seminar “Analysis of the Public Sector and the Possibilities for Its Defense Against Neoliberal Pressures,” realized within the Critical Machine project.
Vuk Vuković is a sociology student at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade and a member of the Center for Social Analysis (Belgrade) and the theoretical–political collective Gerusija (Novi Sad, Belgrade). His theoretical interests include the critique of political economy, class analysis, and models and challenges of political organizing.
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Projekat Kritička mašina se realizuje kroz seriju seminara čiji je cilj da doprinese obezbeđivanju uslova za kontinuiranu reprodukciju i širenje novog jezika kritike koji bi se bavio analizom društvenih fenomena dostupnoj široj javnosti, na analitički postavljen način, istraživački utemeljen i sa kritičkom oštrinom. Potreba za novim analizama koje bi se konstantno suprotstavljale logici zdravog razuma i društvenog konsenzusa je, čini se, neophodna.