Abstract
AbstractThis article explores the role of Yugoslav self-managed corporations in the global economy, with a particular attention to the late socialist period (1976–1991). Guided by a vision of a long-term integration of the Yugoslav economy into the international division of labor on the basis of equality and mutual interest, by the late 1970s the country’s foreign trade and hard currency revenue was boosted by a number of globally oriented corporate entities, some of which survived the demise of socialism and the dissolution of the country. These enterprises had a leading role as the country’s principal exporters and as the fulcrum of a web of economic contacts and exchanges between the Global South, Western Europe, and the Soviet Bloc. The article seeks to fill a historiographic gap by focusing on two major Yugoslav enterprises (Energoinvest and Pelagonija) that were based in the less-developed federal republics—Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. The article also investigates the transnational flow of ideas around the so-called “public enterprise,” its embeddedness in an interdependent global economy, and its visions for equitable development. Finally, the article explores these enterprises as enablers of social mobility and welfare, as well as spaces where issues of efficiency, planning, self-reliance, and self-management were negotiated.
Highlights
An advertisement for Metalna, one of the largest Yugoslav companies from Maribor, Slovenia, appeared in a 1982 issue of the international journal Public Enterprise: the company was presented as an exporter to 50 countries all over the world and as presently “working on equipment for the hydroelectric power station at Hadith in Iraq and Assuan II in Egypt; [...] building wharf cranes for Nigeria and Bangladesh and presses for the Soviet Union; the total value of the work in progress [being] over 100 million US dollars” (Public Enterprise 1982, 101).1 Embeddedness in the global economy was one of the major parameters by which success was measured in Yugoslavia’s socialist corporate world
By focusing on two major Yugoslav companies and exporters—Bosnian Energoinvest and Macedonian Pelagonija—this article investigates the transnational flow of ideas around development, the public-social enterprise, and issues of efficiency, planning, self-reliance, and self-management; at the same time, it explores the creation of a global identity among the Yugoslav workforce
In compliance with the developmentalist paradigms that defined debates within the Group of 77 Developing countries (G77) and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Yugoslav development strategies were underpinned by a vision of a long-term integration of the Yugoslav economy in the international division of labor on the basis of equality and mutual interest
Summary
An advertisement for Metalna, one of the largest Yugoslav companies from Maribor, Slovenia, appeared in a 1982 issue of the international journal Public Enterprise: the company was presented as an exporter to 50 countries all over the world and as presently “working on equipment for the hydroelectric power station at Hadith in Iraq and Assuan II in Egypt; [...] building wharf cranes for Nigeria and Bangladesh and presses for the Soviet Union; the total value of the work in progress [being] over 100 million US dollars” (Public Enterprise 1982, 101).1 Embeddedness in the global economy was one of the major parameters by which success was measured in Yugoslavia’s socialist corporate world. This article charts the role and presence of Yugoslav self-managed enterprises in the global economy, from the late 1970s until Yugoslavia’s dissolution in the early 1990s.
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