Yugoslav Experience Research Articles

Jugoslavia come utopia. Il 1989, gli intellettuali e la critica del nazionalismo

The article analyses some figures of Yugoslav culture in 1989, with the aim of critically discussing the connection between the end of the political regime and the dissolution of the state. It investigates reflections on the crisis of the Federation and constitutional reform, on the relationship between the Yugoslav experience and Europe, and on the role of intellectuals in the transition to democracy. In this way, an alternative perspective on the democratization of Yugoslavia is presented, in contrast with the rise of nationalisms.

‘Sympathy for the Devil?’ McDonald’s between imperialism and the building of post-Yugoslav Serbian identity

Abstract Since the opening of its first restaurant in a communist country, which was Yugoslavia, not only is the huge success of the U.S. franchise something that was merely not supposed to happen, but ‘consuming McDonald’s’ has left its mark on the post ‑Yugoslav identity building process. Our central argument is that the singularity of the ‘McDonaldization of Serbia’ encompasses the interactions between expansion/ localness, dominance/adaptation and those who take part in this historical process which spans more than three decades, their responses that apprise, shape and constrain their everyday life conditions. This paper starts from the observation that most of the existing scholarly literature on identity building addresses the end of the Yugoslav experience whether through state narratives or identities introverted. We chose a different and understudied angle, which is a people ‑centred perspective. Accordingly, this paper uses different research methods under the umbrella of a biographical perspective from 1988 to 2021. Ethnographic fieldwork, comprising 45 semi ‑structured interviews with Belgradians, aims to expand scholarly knowledge on consumption and identity building in post ‑Yugoslav Serbia. In addition, conversations with influential individuals contributed to identify periods in the intermingled life of McDonald’s and people in contemporary Serbia. In the early 1990s, the McDonaldisation to some extent escalated cultural disputes between the republics against a backdrop of identity tensions. During the period spanning from the late years of Milosevic’s rule to the advent of Alexandar Vučić in 2012, political conflicts over sovereignty sparked ambiguous civic responses. Finally, McDonald’s has brought Serbs into the Western sphere which is probably best encapsulated in a local popular saying ‘McDonald’s is McDonald’s’ (‘Mek je Mek’), despite being considered ‘tasty’/unhealthy, expensive/rewarding or socially stimulating.

The Short- and Long-Term Effects Of Economic Sanctions On Economic Dynamics: The Yugoslav Experience

The Short- and Long-Term Effects Of Economic Sanctions On Economic Dynamics: The Yugoslav Experience

The rise and fall of democratic socialism in Yugoslavia 1948-1972.

This article examines the complex trajectory of democratic socialism in Yugoslavia from 1948 to 1972, a period characterized by groundbreaking experimentation and subsequent retreat from socialist ideals. The study begins with Yugoslavia?s 1948 break from Stalin, marking the inception of its independent socialist path, distinct from the Soviet model. It highlights the implementation of innovative policies, particularly the model of worker self-management, reflecting Yugoslavia?s endeavor to marry socialist principles with democratic practices. These policies, initially successful in fostering economic growth and a unique Yugoslav identity, faced internal challenges of ethnic and national complexities and external pressures owing to its non-aligned stance during the Cold War. The article delves into the internal political dynamics and leadership strategies of Yugoslavia during this transformative period, which is a domain that has received less scholarly attention compared to Yugoslav economic and foreign policies. It scrutinizes how Tito and his contemporaries navigated the challenges of maintaining a socialist state while balancing the ideals of democracy with the practicalities of governance. Special attention is given to the interplay between domestic policies and international influences, offering a comprehensive view of the Yugoslav socialist experiment. The decline of democratic socialism in Yugoslavia, culminating in the political shifts of 1972, is portrayed not as an abrupt collapse but as a gradual process, marked by changes in both policy and ideology. The authors conclude that the Yugoslav experience provides valuable insights into the complexities of implementing socialism in a diverse and multifaceted society, illustrating both the potential and limitations of merging socialism with democratic principles.

Entre Memória e Barbárie: As Crónicas Jugoslavas de Álvaro Guerra

This essay produces a critical reading of the “Yugoslav Chronicles” (Crónicas Jugoslavas) written by the Portuguese writer Álvaro Guerra, taking into account the tension established between the space of the memory of a harmonic Yugoslavia and the testimony about it, confronted with the vision, in the moment of writing, of its demise in a fratricide war which is in itself an example of absurdity and barbarism. By placing Yugoslavia against the larger background of Balkan history, the author doesn’t cease to question himself about how it was possible to reinvent the ghosts of XIXth Century Nationalism (as if we were back to the Balkan wars of the beginning of the XXth century), this time mixed not only with the ambitions of the Great Powers, a constant in Modern Balkan History, but also with a new and threatening power: the capacity to mobilize populations through modern media discourse, namely television, which is able by itself to “create” facts. Organized within an assemblage of “galleries” that refer to the multiple facets of the author’s memories, our text does not have the aim of contextualizing the book within the rest of Álvaro Guerra’s literary production, but to do it taking into account the historical, anthropological and sociological spaces that his Yugoslav experience managed to highlight. Our central argument is that, within the tension between memory and barbarism, the author manages to find in the strength of his testimony a way of exorcising the drama of the catastrophe.

The Future Belongs to Us

As a principle of industrial and spatial organisation, self-management enabled Yugoslavia to shape its own socialism after the breakup with the Soviet Union and the rest of the Eastern Bloc — in 1986. It even represented the paradigmatic element of a proposal for an urban restructuring of New Belgrade submitted by Marxist philosopher Henri Lefebvre and architects Renaudie and Gilbaud. The Yugoslav experience of self-management is not the only one. The oldest precedent probably is the Paris Commune. Bottom-up self-management has unravelled the planet over, in factories of Eastern Europe, neighbourhoods in South American cities, and rural communities in North Africa and the Middle East, to mention some.
 This essay will look at self-management as a critical socio-political paradigm inherently connected to spatial determinants and both a means and a goal of reorganising society in the contemporary moment and for the ever nearer future.
 The narrative is positioned in a broader temporal context of mass misappropriation of space by mechanisms of power: be it state, corporate, state-corporate, or architectural; the context, that is, of “flat hierarchies” as the new office ping pong tables and bean bags and corporate campuses as the new public spaces, and in the narrower temporal context of a global pandemic forcing a redefinition of public and private, of work and labour relations.

İlk Bakışta Milliyetçilik ve Futbol: “Sonsuz Derbi” Örneği

From the very beginning of its ‘invention’, football has been a major subject of politics, economy and other social disciplines. In this respect, the Yugoslav experience sets a great example for symbiotic relationship between football and politics. Yugoslav politics, evolved around nationalist tensions, has always had a complex and convoluted profile. In this context, it is argued that the ressentiment at the core of nationalism is a very observable dynamic of Yugoslav politics. Accordingly, the two major football clubs, Partizan FC and Red Star, were deeply influenced by Yugoslavia's founding political principles. Moreover, the rivalry between these two clubs known as the “eternal derby” also took on a symbolic representation of the conflict between nationalist and socialist ideas. Although we can only talk about the former Yugoslavia today, these clubs are still among the greatest living heirs of Balkan history. This paper provides ‘a first look’ at the political history of the “eternal derby” within the framework of Michael Billig and Liah Greenfeld's approaches to nationalism. In this context, it can be said that in addition to its irrational nature with a reference to ressentiment, nationalism is the subject of unconscious reproduction processes that take a place among the habits of daily life. While nationalism, shaped by psychosocial concepts such as existential envy, status inconsistency and identity crisis, the banal form of it can transform teams into armies, players into soldiers, pitches into battlefields, wins into military victories, columnists into embedded journalists. By simulating violence, the imaginary desire for revenge is also tried to be satisfied. The “eternal derby” serves a good model in this regard.

СОЦИОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ ПРОБЛЕМ ПРОИЗВОДСТВЕННОЙ ДЕМОКРАТИИ В ПЕРИОД ПЕРЕСТРОЙКИ

Declared in 1985 by the Soviet leadership headed by Mikhail Gorbachev, the policy of «perestroika» was based on a pecu- liarly understood return to the principles of the reign of V. I. Lenin. The reforms included the process of introducing industrial democracy along the lines of the Yugoslav economy. The election of the management staff of state-owned enterprises should 1) contribute to improving the efficiency of the national economy; 2) extend electoral procedures to the sphere of economic corporations, thus supporting the reform of the political system in the area of transition to competitive elections. The concept of «industrial democracy» is extremely policemen. Western researchers include in its framework very diverse phenomena and processes, from the right of employees to speak out on important management issues, to participate in the management of the enterprise and receive a share of the company's profits. The Soviet reformers of the perestroika period were based on the Yugoslav experience, embodying the philanthropic prin- ciple of «class cooperation» in the process of socialist construction. Moreover, the results of attracting employees to the en- terprise management process were very contradictory. The article considers one of the aspects of this process – sociological research conducted by Soviet researchers at state- owned enterprises. Sociologists studied 1) the attitude of employees to the system of elective leadership; 2) the reaction to the introduction of institutions of industrial democracy; 3) the compliance of the results with the stated goals of the party leadership. As a result, the following main positions were identified: the unwillingness of employees to accept innovations «from above» as an urgent need; the incompetence of employees, including candidates for managers of enterprises and institutions; the preservation of relative inviolability of forms of state ownership, which did not allow the introduction of a new system for managing this property.

ДВЕ КОНЦЕПЦИЈЕ ПОЛОЖАЈА ВОЈВОДИНЕ ТОКОМ УСТАВНЕ РЕФОРМЕ 60-ИХ ГОДИНА ХХ ВЕКА

Почетком шездесетих година двадесетог века у југословенској политичкој јавно­сти учестале су дискусије око предстојеће уставне реформе. У погледу будућег поло­жаја Аутономне покрајине Војводине, сукобиле су се две концепције. Прва, коју је половином октобра 1961. године у београдској Борби, у четири наставка, објавио Ми­лош Минић под насловом Прилог дискусији о новом уставу залагала се за хомогенију структуру Републике Србије. Према Минићевим идејама, иза којих је вероватно стаја­ло тадашње републичко руководство, поред постојеће АП Војводине, односно Ауто­номне Косовско-метохијске области, предвиђено је формирање још неколико области на простору тзв. „Уже Србије“. Претходно је Минић опширно анализирао принципе политичког уређења са теоријског гледишта, историјски развој односа између репу­блике и аутономних јединица и тада актуелно питање срезова. Са друге стране, стручњаци Завода за јавну управу АП Војводине, своје мишљење о предстојећим ус­тавним променама предочили су још у пролеће (мај-јун) 1961. године, у виду неколико обимних списа. Реч се о реферату др Будимира Дамјанова и Миливоја Ковачевића под насловом Аутономна покрајина Војводина (положај и права), Информацији о неким важним питањима у вези са уставном реформом и доношењем статута Аутономне покрајине Војводине, Коментарима о прописима савезног и републичког устава који регулишу правни положај АП Војводине, те још неким елаборатима.

Children and Armed Conflict: The Yugoslav Experience

Using the Yugoslav experience, this paper seeks to analyse and understand the plight of children in war and its aftermath. It also seeks to evaluate and assess the role and effectiveness of NGOs and other aid-providing entities. Data used include personal observations, relevant documents, as well as first-hand accounts. The main conclusion reached in this study is that due to vulnerabilities associated with age, children in armed conflict suffer more than any other social group. The post-war or long-term consequences are often more severe than the difficulties children face during war. The role of NGOs is more helpful during war but less effective when the guns go silent.

The Yugoslav Experience with Workers' Councils

Workers' participation in the management of their work lives is widely regarded as vital to the success of contemporary organizations. One form of nonunion employee representation, widely acclaimed in Europe and rare but receiving increasing attention in North America, is the workers' council. The authors provide a review of the experience, role, structure, and functions of workers' councils in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, a country that undertook one of the most comprehensive programs of worker self-management, including the widespread and legally mandated use of workers' councils. The authors then discuss key issues and concerns about workers' councils.

On Law and Politics in the Federal Balance: Lessons from Yugoslavia

AbstractIn trying to build a supranational polity while paying heed to member states' autonomy concerns, modern supranational 'projects' such as the European Union find themselves where others have been before. This article explores a surprising but pertinent 'ancestor' that, albeit in sharply different societal arrangements, had grappled with the same challenges of balancing integration and autonomy: the former Yugoslavia.The author starts by tracking the development of Yugoslav federalism through its several constitutional incarnations: from the meager federal features of the 1946 Constitution and the similarly centralistic constitutional developments in the 1950s and the 1960s to a stronger federalization of Yugoslavia that culminated with the 1974 Constitution. After a general outline of the constitutional development, the article focuses on the relationship between law and politics in maintaining the federal balance, highlighting the role of the federal Constitutional Court in achieving a proper balance between the centrifugal and the centripetal forces in the federation. Finally, the main theories on the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the role of the federal Constitutional Court are briefly analyzed.In the conclusion, the author attempts to draw out the lessons that the Yugoslav experience may offer contemporary polities faced with the same challenges, focusing on the role of the judicature and the relationship between law and politics in safeguarding the federal bargain.

Polemika se Svetozarem Pejovichem o transformační, tedy neklasické privatizaci

The authors critically discuss some of the theses of Svetozar Pejovich from his article On the Privatization of "Stolen Goods" in Central and Eastern Europe. The Independent Review, v. X, N. 2, Fall 2005, s. 209-229. ISSN 1086- 653. Their polemic can be summarized as follows: (1) According to Pejovich, the "carriers of the institutional restructuring" relied solely on the neo-classical ("text-book") economics. The authors reply that at least in their country also the New Institutional School, Austrian Economics and Public Choice were well known and broadly applied. (2) Pejovich seems to confuse privatization of an individual enterprise with the privatization of the society as a whole, i.e. the actual task of the governments. While the former may seek for an optimal owner, the latter is assigned "only" to launch the initial market for ownership rights. (3) Pejovich seems to believe that governments could have controlled the exact sequencing of their transformation steps and measures. By contrast, the authors stress the extreme spontaneity of the real-life developments and absurdity of the attempts to postpone, e.g., privatization - freeze it till some optimal legal frame emerges and-or is installed. (4) As to the Pejovich's de-communisation, the authors speculate that he may have generalized the Yugoslav experience, where the communists could have shared their Party's titoistic ideology. Contrariwise, the membership of a typical Czech communist was never based on the ideology and thus represented nothing about his/her post-communist concepts. (5) As to the Pejovich's own proposal "how to do it", the authors stress, again, its unrealistic nature, as what the proposal requires in fact is nothing less than to (a) accurately valuate thousands of state-owned enterprises, (b) rationally restructure them physically and financially, (c) offer and sell them at a correct price and (d) fairly divide the proceeds among its citizens. To the authors of this polemic, a task of this magnitude is beyond capacity of anybody, not to mention governments, least of all the post-communist ones.

Liberated Cinema. The Yugoslav Experience, 1945-2001 by Daniel J. s> Goulding (review)

Liberated Cinema. The Yugoslav Experience, 1945-2001 by Daniel J. s> Goulding (review)

Russia and NATO toward the twenty‐first century: conflicts and peacekeeping in Bosnia‐Herzegovina and Kosovo

The new Russian‐NATO relationship plunged to the lowest point during NATO's 78‐day Kosovo air campaign in Spring 1999. Despite the difficulties at the political level, the analysis suggests that Russia's participation in joint peacekeeping with US/NATO forces in Bosnia‐Herzegovina (IFOR/SFOR) and Kosovo (KFOR) stand as perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the contemporary Russian‐NATO relationship. These successes in peacekeeping tended to be overshadowed by the serious strains between Russia and NATO in developing a response to the implosion of Yugoslavia. While such practical cooperation between Russia and NATO can contribute to eroding the barriers of the past and to the development of a constructive relationship for the twenty‐first century, these military‐to‐military accomplishments cannot shape broader Russian‐NATO strategic priorities. The article concludes with examination of Moscow's postmortem assessments on Kosovo and evaluation of prospects for the future of the Russian‐NATO relationship in the aftermath of the Yugoslav experience.

Patient satisfaction of general practitioner - Yugoslav experience-

Patient satisfaction of general practitioner - Yugoslav experience-

UN‐NATO interaction: Lessons from the Yugoslav experience

UN‐NATO interaction: Lessons from the Yugoslav experience

Allied forces Northwestern Europe: The commander's perspective

Following the radical changes on the international scene, NATO now faces new challenges. They are posed by violent terrorist groups, isolated states, and ethnic and religious groups. NATO's answer so far has been the Partnership for Peace programme, which has taken steps towards a focus on cooperation rather than conflict. The Yugoslav experience has proved that NATO needs a force ready to meet military challenges, as well as providing an opportunity for cooperation between NATO and non‐NATO forces. Within this context, Air Chief Marshal Johns discusses the mission and role of AFNORWEST and the need for realistic training and coordination. AFNORWEST is now fully integrated into NATO's evolving military structures which, as the author concludes, must be maintained through the political will and commitment of all participating nations.

The dissolution and building of new nations as strategy and process between elites and people. Lessons from historical European and recent Yugoslav experience

(1996). The dissolution and building of new nations as strategy and process between elites and people. Lessons from historical European and recent Yugoslav experience. International Review of Sociology: Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 231-247.

Towards a Justification of Social Ownership: A Comparison of the Property Rights Social Choice and Economic Justice Approach$fr:1$f:0034–6764/94/0601–72/$ 1.50/0$ef:

I. Introduction Social ownership has always been a permanent source of debate. Most authors now argue that it has shown its inefficiencies and that it would be better off banned. Several privatization strategies are devised that leave no room for social ownership. We will once more review the issue. We will not focus on the traditional approach, but lead the discussion into some new, hopefully fruitful, direction. We will first look into Yugoslav theory and practice in search of a definition of social ownership. At the same time, we will explore how the same basic institution works under different organizational and political arrangements. Yugoslav category of social ownership has been extensively studied by property rights economics. In the early seventies, Furubotn and Pejovich developed arguments about the intrinsic deficiencies and difficulties of the self-managed economy. Next, we would like to analyze an approach based on welfare economics and social choice theory. Roemer introduces axioms to define social ownership and studies its ethical implications. Finally we will review theories of justice developed by Rawls and Pazner. We will then try to derive a justification for social ownership as a morally desirable institution. We hope, at least, to enrich the traditional discussion on social ownership with this viewpoint. II. Social Ownership We will first review the Yugoslav experience briefly in order to clarify the idea of social ownership. According to the Yugoslav constitution of 1974, social property is a special form of collective property of the means of production and of other resources in such a way that they belong to the community and not to one collective, group or individual. However, it has been equally maintained that no individual could claim the title of owner or alienate those means. Thus, in theory everybody and nobody owned them (Mali Leksikon Samopravljaca, 1972, p. 6; Strahinjic, 1980, p. 45; Ustav, 1974, art 12, pp. 129-31). Users were expected at least to preserve the value of the means of production. Workers' collectives may only use, control, manage and create an income-stream from them. Of course, just one basic institutional characteristic of the Yugoslav system has been isolated. It is clear that the whole legal and institutional surrounding will determine how the economy really works. Economic policy will greatly influence the performance of the institution of social property. Though we plead for an unconditional (but argued) introduction of social ownership, its interaction with the economic system and policy has to be carefully studied. precise legal and actual form of social ownership should be adapted to the surrounding circumstances. To substantiate this point, we will summarize the experience of three periods of the Yugoslav economy, all three characterized by the basic institution of social ownership. first period (1953-1960) can be labelled as an investment led socialist market economy. central authorities made the decisive macro-economic decisions -- such as the rate of investment (resources are pooled in a federal central investment fund), its allocation to major sectors or regions, the distribution of income, and the level of exports and imports. system performed surprisingly well (Lydall, 1984, p. 74).(1) In this period the Yugoslav economy grew at the highest rate of its history. Why was it then dropped? The system is vulnerable to important behavioral and political problems. use of instruments that support the objectives of the visible hand system's planners affects the interests of various firms and groups in a discriminatory fashion (Ben-ner and Neuberger, 1990, pp. 770-71). There were also theoretical and practical problems in the co-ordination between the macro-level and the micro-level. Most of all, producers did not take the decisions on the division and use of the surplus value (e. …