Poll Shows Serbians Preferred Life Under Tito; Say Standard of Living Was Best During Tito's Rule

A new poll shows that as many as 81 percent of Serbians believe they lived best in the former Yugoslavia "during the time of socialism," according to the Balkan Insight website.

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 World War II 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."

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

The poll was conducted by the Center for Social Democratic Studies (CSSD), the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation, and the Center for Free Elections and Democracy. It included 1,813 respondents.