Political Clientelism and Private Security Sector in Serbia

Abstract

The private security sector began to develop in Serbia during the 1990s. Along with the formation of the neo-patrimonial regime in the 1990s, followed by gradual stabilization of political clientelism after the year 2000, the private security sector developed through privatization processes, the establishment of domestic private security companies (sometimes in conjunction with organized crime or with the state security apparatus), but also through the development of the market by the inflow of international corporations. In this paper, we will try to examine how the system of political clientelism shaped the private security sector in Serbia. The main thesis is that privatization processes and the normative framework of public procurements, whose manifest goal was to prevent corruption, were the key factors that shaped the development of the private security sector in Serbia on a clientelist basis, causing serious market distortions. Furthermore, we will try to explore whether new forms of clientelist relations are being formed within this sector. The paper will be based on the analysis of the relevant normative framework and contextual factors crucial for the development of the private security sector in Serbia, supplemented by the secondary analysis of interview data, gathered from the actors belonging to this sector, and conducted and published by researchers of Belgrade Center for Security Policy.