Serbian political democracy reverses economic democracy?

[David Erdal <david@erdal.net>]

I cannot see that a government moving from dictatorship towards a more
democratic structure politically will move away from employee ownership.

But I certainly see that market reforms which are led by finance capital
interests will move exactly as the Serbians have done. They want
international investment funds to be able to buy Serbian companies. To have
60% owned by the workers would only cause difficulties for international
capital.

I would guess that what has happened in Serbia (about which I know very
little) is that the political class has been won over by the theories and
interests of international finance capital. Much has been learned since
Russia, but it is basically the same thrust. One of the disasters for
Russia was that the international economic theorists believed their own
propaganda: "Just dismantle the old institutions and the Market will sort
everything out". But actually markets only work where there is trust based
in the ability of civic society to punish cheats - e.g. to enforce
contracts and to catch fraudsters. It is only a complex network of social
institutions that allows the market to work. So without those institutions
Russia slid into criminality - the free reign of a market WITHOUT the
institutions that keep it clean.

We need an international Mondragon Bank, which will arrange capital for
employee owned companies.
David Erdal