ABSTRACT This article examines the issue of housing provision in late-socialist Yugoslavia when the reforms of the mid-1970s transformed the socialist system of self-management by promoting the Marxist principle of the ‘withering away of the state’. This new turn was intended to reduce state intervention and favour direct workers’ participation in decision-making to give birth to a more democratic socialist society. Housing policy was central to this model, as this responsibility was placed in the hands of the self-managed companies, which were in charge of drafting a rule book to organize the funding and the distribution of dwellings and housing credits. The transformations of Yugoslav late socialism thus made citizens place the fate of their domestic space under the control of their productive space. Indeed, the managers in the companies were enabled to define the housing needs of their workers and the criteria of priority for the distributions. This article aims to re-evaluate the state’s role in self-managed Yugoslavia by questioning the notion of ‘mixed economy of welfare’. This paper thus addresses the dynamic interactions between the public actors of the socialist state, the companies that implemented their housing policies, and the workers’ participation in the self-management system. The author will mainly rely on sources from two medium-sized cities in Serbia and Croatia, including the documents from the municipal actors, and the ones from the main factories in the region. By confronting them, the author will give an account of the companies’ action in the making of self-managed housing provision, and will elaborate on the redefinition of public intervention in a country where the state was supposed to wither away.

ABSTRACT The political commissars active in the armed forces of the twentieth century’s socialist states emerged during the Russian Revolution and civil war and spread throughout the world with the growth of the communist movement. Depending on the country and time period, the functions and institutional power of commissars ranged from that of a parallel hierarchy of officers with operational powers, to an integrated part of the officer corps specializing in matters regarding personnel management and education. The commissars’ subsequent development into an essential part of military organization resulted in a distinct system of civil-military relations that differed significantly from that of non-socialist contemporary states. This article provides a condensed overview of commissar-led political instruction as a transnational phenomenon during the first half of the twentieth century. It begins with a brief conceptual discussion of the problem of civil–military relations in the Marxist theory of the state held by the Bolshevik Party. It goes on to argue that the commissar system was an institutional innovation intended to provide a politically acceptable solution to this problem within the context of the Russian Civil War. The article then traces the export of the commissar system through the Communist International, discussing the development of analogous positions among the anti-fascist armed forces of Republican Spain and the Balkan resistance movements. It argues that the commissar form was sufficiently flexible to accommodate a variety of civil–military dynamics reflecting the concrete conditions of each conflict.

Abstract In the second decade of the twentieth century, Oklahoma hosted the largest state Socialist Party in the United States. The poor white farmers who formed its base hoped that their representatives would release them from local landlords, banks, and creditors. But these tenants and sharecroppers vented their grievances from inside a shattered landscape of recent and ongoing Indigenous dispossession. They could not entomb Native people entirely inside the past, because they confronted a great deal of Indian landownership. Oklahoma Socialists observed how politicians, lawyers, and businessmen grew fat on Indian resources and the deliberate pursuit of injury, fraud, and deception. But they evaded a direct attack on American colonial expansion and instead condemned its capitalist character. Capitalists, they argued, had first conquered the Indians, and now they had created an oppressed agricultural working class. In Oklahoma, radical economic dissent intersected with US imperial policy. Modern leftist politics helped justify and conceal the outcomes of conquest.

ABSTRACT This article analyses the 1947 Yugoslav trial of General Alexander Löhr, the highest-ranking Wehrmacht officer prosecuted in post-war Yugoslavia, in order to demonstrate how a small socialist state both adapted and extended the legacy of the Nuremberg trials. Building on its involvement in the International Military Tribunal, Yugoslavia combined principles of international criminal law with its own partisan legal traditions to create a hybrid legal framework. The proceedings against Löhr addressed three central issues: the legality of strategic bombing, the recognition of partisans as lawful combatants, and the criminalization of reprisals. By rejecting restrictive interpretations of international criminal law, Yugoslav military courts anticipated subsequent codifications in the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols. Thus, the trial was both an act of national accountability and an intervention in the global evolution of the laws of war, asserting Yugoslavia’s legal sovereignty and moral authority in the early Cold War era.

Abstract Why do communist countries sign bilateral investment treaties (BITs)? This article explores this question through the case of Yugoslavia, the first communist state to do so. In 1974, Yugoslavia signed a BIT with France, paving the way for further investment treaties – both in Yugoslavia and, soon after, in other communist countries. These developments sparked intense debate within the Yugoslav Communist Party, with some factions viewing them as a betrayal of Marxist–Leninist principles. While Western powers welcomed the move, it was strongly criticized by Eastern Bloc countries, particularly the Soviet Union, as ideological heresy. This paper analyses the complex motivations behind Yugoslavia’s foreign investment policy in the 1960s and 1970s, arguing that it was driven by domestic political, geopolitical, and ideological factors – not just economic considerations. Domestically, BITs were linked to the Communist Party’s efforts to maintain political power and stability. Geopolitically, they served as tools to secure international allies. Ideologically, the policy sought to promote a distinct Yugoslav model of socialism – one that blended socialist principles, workers’ self-management, market economics, and coexistence with both capitalist and socialist states. This ideological dimension, overlooked in the literature, highlights how BITs were not merely economic instruments but also tools for advancing a hybrid economic and foreign policy that challenged both capitalist and Soviet orthodoxies.

ABSTRACT This study shows that under the communist dictatorship, with the restrictions on the circulation of ideas caused by censorship and the effect of the Iron Curtain, the postulates for changing the economic (and political) system were focused on reinventing socialism, and transforming it into ‘socialism with a human face’ rather than restoring capitalism. Until the late 1980s, virtually none of the participants in the debate saw capitalism as a valid alternative to socialism. The discussion focused on how to reform the existing socialist system so that it would achieve the real goals of socialism, including fair distribution of the value produced and equitable participation. The issue of democratizing the system was as important as improving its efficiency.

Abstract Marxism is the fundamental guiding ideology upon which the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the country are founded and thrive. During the revolutionary period, the CPC successfully explored the path of integrating the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s specific realities (the “First Integration”), achieving the theoretical breakthrough of adapting Marxism to the Chinese context: Mao Zedong Thought. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the CPC led the people in embarking on the journey of socialist modernization. Since the reform and opening-up, the CPC has continued to advance this integration, constantly enriching and developing the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics in keeping with the times. Entering the New Era, General Secretary Xi Jinping creatively proposed the “Second Integration”—the integration of the basic tenets of Marxism with China’s fine traditional culture. Together with “the First Integration,” they constitute the “Two Integrations,” a significant theoretical innovation. These two are dialectically unified: the First Integration serves as the logical premise for the Second Integration, while the second completes this logic, elevating “integration” to a new height. As another form of mental emancipation, the Second Integration fosters confidence in China’s history, culture, and civilization. It defines the Chinese civilizational dimension of Xi Jinping Thought on Culture, transforming fine traditional Chinese culture into a valued, structural, and constructive force for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The Two Integrations, especially the Second Integration, represent an original contribution of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. It not only opens a new realm for adapting Marxism to the Chinese context and the needs of the times but also provides theoretical guidance for renewing the ancient Chinese civilization with a new mission and creating a new model for human advancement, demonstrating the Communist Party of China’s commitment to its civilizational responsibility for all humanity.

Free trade is one of the central issues in the dynamics of the global economy, sparking debates about the extent to which the state should be involved in economic activities. Each economic system holds a different perspective on the relationship between market mechanisms and state intervention. This article aims to analyze the concept of free trade and the role of the state from the perspective of various economic systems, namely liberal, socialist, mixed, and Islamic economic systems. The research method employed is a literature review, examining relevant sources such as books, scholarly journals, and other academic references. The findings indicate that the liberal economic system tends to emphasize market freedom with minimal state involvement, whereas the socialist system positions the state as the main regulator in trade. The mixed economic system seeks to balance the roles of the market and the state, while Islamic economics permits free trade as long as it is conducted in accordance with the principles of ethics, justice, and social responsibility. This article is expected to contribute academically to a better understanding of the differing approaches of economic systems toward free trade and the role of the state in addressing global economic challenges.

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the body of literature on the economic history of the Soviet bloc by shifting the focus from theoretical debates to the practical efforts made to overcome the ‘classic’ model. It addresses the knowledge gap by examining the grassroots experiments that took place in late socialist Hungary under the leadership of Tibor Liska, an economist who sought to develop an alternative market system based on socialism and social justice. Liska rejected both private property and state-directed economics as anti-competitive and ultimately unjust. Distancing himself from the contemporary debate centred on managerial socialism, Liska developed the concept of universal entrepreneurship, which he believed would enable the socialist system to compete with Western capitalism in terms of economic productivity and profit. From the late 1970s onwards, Liska was permitted to conduct limited economic experiments based on his theories. However, their success raised political concerns, resulting in the experiments being abruptly terminated. While this did not spell the end of Liska’s career, interrupting his experiments amid the deep economic and financial crisis of the early 1980s signalled the demise of a socialist solution to the final crisis of the Soviet system. Drawing on a wide range of unpublished primary sources, this article describes how Liska has repeatedly managed to convince politicians and economists of his ideas and secure funding for his experiments. It also emphasizes that the boundaries of political and academic tolerance towards visionary, rational reform projects such as Liska’s were tightly controlled until the collapse of the entire Soviet bloc. Liska was not a utopian or a neoliberal, but rather a pragmatically sophisticated thinker who was willing to take risks in order to test economic alternatives to bureaucratic planning.

Public finance theory traditionally assumes the existence of a fiscal contract linking taxation, representation, and accountability. Communist regimes challenge this assumption by sustaining extensive public extraction and allocation without pluralistic taxation or political consent. This article develops the concept of fiscal control without a fiscal contract to analyze how public finance operates under central planning as a system of implicit extraction rather than as a policy instrument negotiated with taxpayers. Using Communist Albania (1945–1990) as a primary case study, the article adopts a qualitative, theory-driven approach and constructs an analytical framework structured around visibility of extraction, channels of coercion, fiscal discretion, accounting opacity, monetary control, and distributive effects. The analysis shows that a set of implicit extraction mechanisms—including administered prices, wage compression, constrained monetization, state monopolies, and the direct appropriation of production surpluses through centrally planned productive units—functioned as substitutes for explicit taxation, fulfilling allocative and stabilizing functions while suppressing fiscal visibility and accountability. A brief comparative reference to other socialist systems highlights Albania’s specificity as a case of extreme centralization and fiscal opacity. The article contributes to public finance scholarship by extending the analysis of fiscal systems beyond contractual settings and by conceptualizing budgets and accounting practices as instruments of governance rather than as arenas of collective choice.

Regulating human rights and their protection in North Macedonia’s legal system has an important historic dimension, accounting for the historic continuum of the constitutional and legal human rights framework in the country from 1946 to date. The Socialist Republic of Macedonia, as part of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), was a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) since 26 January 1965. Although the Macedonian legal system, from 1946 until the start of the democratic transition process in 1990-1991, was considered a part of the socialist systems, Macedonian citizens had constitutional, legal and institutional protection of human rights and freedoms. However, the formal existence of the legislation did not achieve the protection of human rights as a final goal. Hence, in this chapter, several key issues related to the protection of human rights in the Macedonian state will be analysed and elaborated, such as the contextual introduction of the historical development of human rights in the country, the relationship between the Macedonian state and the Council of Europe (CoE) from a human rights perspective, the CoE human rights conventions to which North Macedonia is a State Party, elaboration on the national implementation (the process and time of accession/succession /ratification) of the ECHR, how human rights protection obligations deriving from the ECHR are reflected in the constitution and/or other major acts of the country and the major law-making processes that took place in the country due to the ECHR. The chapter includes several landmark cases of North Macedonia before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), elaborated in detail.

This article investigates how Romania developed synthetic fibre production capacities under socialism by engaging with Western engineering firms while circumventing formal licencing regimes. Focusing on the Săvinești platform (1959–1989), it reconstructs four distinct modes of industrial learning, operational, engineering-replicative, design-based, and embedded cooperation, shaped by Cold War constraints and export imperatives. Drawing on technical documentation, patent data, and oral histories, the study shows how Romania leveraged partial technology access to expand production, despite structural exclusions from intellectual property regimes. The findings contribute to debates on global business history by revealing how socialist states developed hybrid strategies of technological upgrading in the semi-periphery, navigating dependence through engineering intermediation and institutional improvisation.

The names of László Rajk and Rudolf Slánský are undoubtedly intertwined with the historical legacy of Hungary’s and Czechoslovakia’s Stalinist political trials, which aimed to unveil the “enemies within the party.” Rajk, as the Minister of Interior, and Slánský, as the general secretary of the KSČ, played a robust role in establishing the socialist system in their countries. Their careers, trials, and fate only slightly differ from each other. However, Rajk’s reburial in 1956 and his son’s active involvement in the opposition movement during the 1980s made his public perception quite complex. These factors generated a sort of sympathetic victimhood around him, disregarding his career within the communist party. This stays in sharp opposition to the perception of Slánský, whose character was never looked at sympathetically. In my study, I examine the road to this complex image of the two politicians based on secondary literature, archival and journalistic sources. Using a comparative historical and cross-national approach to explore the similarities and differences between Rajk’s and Slánský’s life, political career, demise, and the aftermath of their trials, the study not only depicts the distinctions and resemblances between the two men, but also reveals how their current perceptions took shape throughout the years.

The article examines the invisibility of artistic labour in neoliberal Poland after 1989. It focuses on the exhibition A Way of Life (Sposób na życie), which took place at Łaźnia Center for Contemporary Art in Gdańsk in 2002. Rather than presenting traditional works of art, the exhibition showcased the outcomes of commercial commissions created solely for profit. The article considers A Way of Life not only as a reflection of understanding artistic labour as non-work, but also as a starting point for reflecting on the cultural model lost after the fall of communism.

The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a federal state composed of the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, the Federation entity with a Bosniak majority, and the Brčko District with an undetermined status. This study focuses on Bosnia and Herzegovina, examining the ethnic policies implemented in Bosnia during the socialist Yugoslav period and the formation and development of Bosniak nationalism. By analyzing Tito‘s “Brotherhood and Unity” policy and its historical narrative strategies, this paper argues that while Yugoslavia sought to suppress nationalism, it simultaneously institutionalized Bosniak ethnic identity through political and cultural means. The policy shift of the 1960s and 1970s first granted Bosniaks official ethnic status while simultaneously weakening supra-ethnic Yugoslav identity. With the collapse of the socialist system and the resurgence of nationalism, Bosnian society once again descended into division and conflict. Today‘s “Yugoslav nostalgia” reflects a collective longing for the ideals of multi-ethnic coexistence and social equality—ideals once embodied by the Yugoslav state system.

Based on the materials of the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the State Archive of the Republic of Buryatia, the article analyzes the main forms of interaction between representatives of the Central Committee of the USSR in the international field. The authors noted that all the foreign policy activities of Soviet Buddhists were controlled by state and party bodies, which perceived it as a “soft power” in relations with the countries of Southeast Asia. An important part of this integration was the participation of members of the Central Committee of the USSR in various conferences, congresses and membership in non-governmental organizations, the main purpose of which was to maintain pacifism in the world, to prevent military clashes, as well as discrimination. Despite this, by the end of the 1960s, a number of contradictions between the countries of the capitalist and socialist bloc began to accumulate in international organizations. All this resulted in the creation of the Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace, whose representatives were countries oriented towards a socialist system. At the same time, it is concluded that active diplomatic activity influenced religious policy towards Buddhism in the USSR. The visits of foreign leaders to the Soviet Union were the reason for more mass visits to the datsans by believers, which contradicted the atheistic course of the USSR. For this reason, the Soviet leadership had to make certain concessions for the Buddhist religion on its territory in order to maintain active foreign policy contacts.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, we have been able to observe an increasingly growing nostalgia and sentimental returns to the times of communism in the entire region of the former Eastern Bloc countries. Of course, nostalgia for these times does not only apply to the older generation. The experi- ence of communism is passed on as a kind of transfer of memory to the younger part of society. Sometimes it is the nostalgia of grandparents, but more often of parents who did not like the political transformation or were unable to find their way in the new market economy. The idealisation of post‑communist history in the young generation is, for example, art, furni-ture, ceramics, etc., which were rejected by the mainstream in the 1990s and are now coming back and becoming attractive and cool. An example of such an idealised world and the realities of life in the Eastern Bloc countries is the Workers and Resources Soviet Republic game released in 2019 by the Slovak studio 3Divi-sion. Using it as an example, I would like to analyse what the computer reality represents, what it can say about social memory, and how it can shape the player's vision of the functioning of the socialist state. Adding new patches to the game constantly expands its functions, including new management mechanisms, such as those related to law and crime. Introducing, among other things, the security service and the political police whose task is to examine the level of loyalty of the citizens—one of the important measures in the game. All this will affect the player's immersion. If developers continue to develop it, it will become almost a simulator of a com-munist state.

Even before the reality TV show The Biggest Loser became popular in the 2000s, similar weight loss formats already existed in the 1970s and 1980s – and not only in West Germany (FRG), but also in state socialist East Germany (GDR). In 1977, the popular West German show Practice Health Magazine ( Gesundheitsmagazin Praxis ) organised a six-month weight loss programme; 10 years later, in 1987, the East German show Man, Stay Healthy! ( Mensch, bleib gesund! ) followed suit. This article analyses both programmes and their ways of addressing fatness from a comparative perspective, while also considering transnational contexts and long-term developments. By asking how the programmes governed individuals classified as ‘overweight’ and how these individuals governed themselves, the article argues that both programmes were rooted in liberal governmentality. Nevertheless, significant differences emerge, raising the question of whether the GDR show articulated a distinct state socialist governmentality, while its FRG counterpart tended to manifest a neo-liberal mode of governing.

Introducing the special issue of History of the Human Sciences on ‘Socialist Governmentality’, this article sketches out the potential of transferring Foucault’s governmentality concept to the state socialist societies of Cold War Eastern Europe. In six case studies from Poland, the GDR, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and a Romanian ex-pat community in Libya, we focus on health-related practices between 1960 and 1989–1990. Given the rather diverse scope of the special issue, this introduction aims to unfold the conceptual framework and discuss the possibilities and limitations of sending Foucault across the Iron Curtain. First, it outlines some of the challenges late modernity posed to both hemispheres of the Global North: The ‘crisis’ of governability in the age of the ‘scientific-technical revolution’ and advanced welfarism seemed to call for alternative ways of governing complex societies, including a shift of responsibilities to the individual. Thus, in a second step, Foucault’s concept of the liberal ‘conduct of conduct’ is recaptured. Adaptions of his theorising for other than Western contexts are outlined, which called for inquiries into concrete, local practices of governing oneself. Following this imperative, our case studies are, lastly, situated in the multi-faceted landscape of state socialist health care and health-related self-techniques.

Cultural norms and governance styles critically influence the design and outcomes of social policy and mobility. This paper examines how the governance culture the embedded values, behaviors, and institutional logics of government affects social mobility and development in selected ASEAN countries. Focusing on Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, we use a mixed-methods approach that combines analysis of policy documents and development indicators with cultural analysis. These countries, despite shared regional and some cultural traits (e.g. Buddhist heritage, collectivism), show starkly different outcomes. Thailand, an upper middle-income democracy under persistent government influence, has achieved significant poverty reduction but retains very high inequality (ADB, 2022); by contrast, Myanmar and Laos, both lower-middle–income authoritarian regimes, have lagging human development and minimal social safety nets (United Nations, 2021). We find that Thailand’s deeply hierarchical, its social policies (e.g. universal healthcare, the 2017 welfare-card scheme) are sizable but often paternalistic and top-down, resulting in moderate redistribution but persistent spatial and class gaps (World Bank, 2023a; World Bank, 2023b). In Myanmar, decades of government rule produced an authoritarian, opaque culture with entrenched patronage; social protection spending is extremely low (≤1% GDP) and coverage minimal (Inya Economics, 2022; Inya Economics, 2022). Laos’s one-party socialist system enshrines strict central control; despite official pro-poor rhetoric, actual social spending remains tiny (≈0.8% GDP) (Albert & Phouxay, 2024) and program coverage narrow. Across all cases, powerful elites and rigid bureaucratic traditions have shaped priorities so that social welfare expansion is limited and primarily benefits insiders. The result is constrained social mobility: education and health services are unevenly accessed, and only those with connections (bureaucratic, government, or party links) advance easily. We discuss policy implications: aligning interventions with local norms, strengthening egalitarian institutions, and gradual norm change. For instance, Thailand may need more participatory targeting in welfare and deeper educational investment to offset its patronage, while Myanmar and Laos require emergency expansion of social safety nets (e.g. cash transfers, health subsidies) albeit within the realities of their political contexts. We also highlight that policy itself can reshape norms over time (Bau, Lowes, & Montero, 2025; Bau, Lowes, & Montero, 2025). Understanding the culture–policy–development nexus is thus key for ASEAN countries seeking inclusive growth.