Yugoslav Self-Management as a Model of Participatory Municipal Governance?

Abstract

Socialist Yugoslavia was a one-party state that extensively cultivated citizen and worker participation in decision-making at their place of residence and their place of work. From the early 1970s, Yugoslav authorities made radical steps toward the decentralization of power through the transfer of jurisdiction from the federal level to the republics and from the republics to municipalities. The Yugoslav doctrine of self-managing socialism also entailed the ‘socialization’ of the state through the transfer of functions from state institutions to self-managed communities and organizations, which mostly occurred at the level of municipalities. This chapter gives an overview of how Yugoslav self-management was designed at the municipal level; it is an examination of the institutional setup of local communities, an institution that aimed to promote direct citizen engagement in decision-making at the local level. Through a meticulous analysis of official thinking on self-management at the municipal level, this chapter outlines how municipal governance was conceptualized and implemented through the enactment of the 1974 Constitution. By drawing on a combination of primary sources, secondary literature and expert interviews, the chapter also gives an overview of how local communities operated in late socialism. Special attention is given to the role of sociopolitical organizations in the work of local communities and the extent to which they acted as catalysts or impediments to the articulation and fulfillment of the needs and interests expressed by citizens in local communities. Finally, the interactions between local communities, municipalities and city authorities are examined through a case study focusing on the introduction of the voluntary contribution financing mechanism in Belgrade in the 1980s. This case study gives valuable insight into the extent to which local communities allowed citizens to shape decision-making at the level of the city and raises further questions regarding the extent to which the Yugoslav self-managing system met the proclaimed goals of direct socialist democracy.