Policy of balanced regional development of the Republic of Serbia from 2000 to 2018

Abstract

Balanced regional development is one of the cornerstones of sustainable economic growth and development of any country. During the years that followed the democratic changes in 2000, the Republic of Serbia found itself in sinister transitional processes. One of the key transitional issues was the policy of balanced regional development. Therefore, the aim of this research is to examine the mechanisms and instruments of balanced regional development in the Republic of Serbia in the period from 2000 to 2018 as well as the effects of their implementation in practice. The results of the research indicate the presence of unbalanced regional development throughout the observed period. Although in a normative sense a framework for the implementation of comprehensive and developmental reforms in this area has been set, the results are missing in practice. The reasons for this are hidden in a weakly decentralized state, partial reform steps taken exclusively from above to bottom, inefficient coordination of the subjects of regional development, but also in the unfavorable historical heritage in this area. In conclusion, we emphasize that the process of the accession of the Republic of Serbia to the European Union represents a great opportunity to balance its regional development, considering that the European Union is paying more and more attention to regional development through its institutions and mechanisms of regional policy. In the research, we will use methods of analysis and analysis of content of documents, case studies and comparative method.