Libertarian Enthusiasts Find Serbia a Hard Sell | Balkan Insight - Srdjan Garcevic:
March 14, 2019 - "Sitting in an office in Belgrade, the leaders of the Serbian Libertarian Club, Libek, Milos Nikolic and Petar Cekerevac, seem quite in tune with Serbia’s political realities. Both are aware that the gospel of free markets and free society is a tough sell in a country where the only experience of capitalism is of the crony sort, and where many look back with nostalgia to the Socialist past.
"'The point is not to force [libertarianism] into Serbian culture but to recognise the elements that are compatible with it here … and then see how those ideas are best adapted to Serbia,' Cekarevac, Libek’s executive manager, says.
"A cross between a club and a think tank, Libek has no ambitions to become a party. It was founded in 2008, while Nikolic, its current president and one of the three founders, was at Belgrade University’s School of Political Science. Nikolic found the atmosphere at the university oversaturated with 'leftist, egalitarian, collectivist' ideas....
"Libek-organised education courses and policy proposals to political parties and the government on topics such as public debt and primary education ... gave them niche appeal among politically minded youth. Now they see an opportunity in the current environment to engage a wider audience.
"Last year, Libek launched Talas.rs, an online portal that seeks to provide a platform for debate across the political spectrum.... Nikolic ... describes their core audience as those who are thirsty for in-depth criticism and discussion, but also those who want to hear more critical analyses of the Serbian economy, a major talking point of the current government..... He explains that many Talas readers and contributors are prominent members of political parties who use the portal to find information for their policy agendas....
"The birth of Talas and Libek’s attempts to spread libertarianism more widely in Serbia match the rising profile of libertarian movements around the world.... Libek’s wish to spread libertarian thinking in Serbia is helped by that fact that Students for Liberty, a global youth organisation with whom they are partnered, is organising LibertyCon in April in Belgrade. Speakers at the pan-European conference will include author and libertarian guru Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Branko Milanovic, a Serbian economist who focuses on global inequality."
Read more: https://balkaninsight.com/2019/03/14/libertarian-enthusiasts-find-serbia-a-hard-sell/
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March 14, 2019 - "Sitting in an office in Belgrade, the leaders of the Serbian Libertarian Club, Libek, Milos Nikolic and Petar Cekerevac, seem quite in tune with Serbia’s political realities. Both are aware that the gospel of free markets and free society is a tough sell in a country where the only experience of capitalism is of the crony sort, and where many look back with nostalgia to the Socialist past.
"'The point is not to force [libertarianism] into Serbian culture but to recognise the elements that are compatible with it here … and then see how those ideas are best adapted to Serbia,' Cekarevac, Libek’s executive manager, says.
"A cross between a club and a think tank, Libek has no ambitions to become a party. It was founded in 2008, while Nikolic, its current president and one of the three founders, was at Belgrade University’s School of Political Science. Nikolic found the atmosphere at the university oversaturated with 'leftist, egalitarian, collectivist' ideas....
"Libek-organised education courses and policy proposals to political parties and the government on topics such as public debt and primary education ... gave them niche appeal among politically minded youth. Now they see an opportunity in the current environment to engage a wider audience.
"Last year, Libek launched Talas.rs, an online portal that seeks to provide a platform for debate across the political spectrum.... Nikolic ... describes their core audience as those who are thirsty for in-depth criticism and discussion, but also those who want to hear more critical analyses of the Serbian economy, a major talking point of the current government..... He explains that many Talas readers and contributors are prominent members of political parties who use the portal to find information for their policy agendas....
"The birth of Talas and Libek’s attempts to spread libertarianism more widely in Serbia match the rising profile of libertarian movements around the world.... Libek’s wish to spread libertarian thinking in Serbia is helped by that fact that Students for Liberty, a global youth organisation with whom they are partnered, is organising LibertyCon in April in Belgrade. Speakers at the pan-European conference will include author and libertarian guru Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Branko Milanovic, a Serbian economist who focuses on global inequality."
Read more: https://balkaninsight.com/2019/03/14/libertarian-enthusiasts-find-serbia-a-hard-sell/
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