Regional Development In Communist Yugoslavia
Regional Development In Communist Yugoslavia

Author: Dijana Plestina

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-07-11

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1000309436

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The brutal war now raging in what was Yugoslavia, the author argues, is fueled not merely by interethnic hatred but also by longstanding disparities in economic well-being among republics and regions. The Communist leadership, having stated its intention when it took power to eliminate economic disparities, nonetheless failed to confront the conflict of interests that distorted the country's economic policy—and thus never worked out a coherent strategy for regional development. Interregional tensions were inflamed by the failure to close the gap between wealthy and poor areas, directly contributing to the breakup of the country. Basing her argument on longitudinal data and on in-depth interviews with Yugoslav leaders at federal and regional levels (Milovan Djilas, Svetozar Vukmanovic-Tempo, Bosko Gluscevic, Hasan Zolic, and several dozen others), Dijana Pleština examines and assesses the economic inequalities as well as the effects that the leadership's regional policies had on them. She shows that despite the mandate for equalization that was part of socialist doctrine, Yugoslav leaders were at first unwilling, and later unable, to formulate policies that would enhance the economic well-being of the poorest regions. Instead, they adopted a strategy of "top-down" growth, which enhanced the further development of the wealthier regions. Later, partially in an effort to placate the disadvantaged, they shifted funds to some of the less-developed regions. Rather than promoting equality, such ad hoc "solutions" fostered competition for scarce resources and intensified political cleavages. Pleština also looks at how the devolution of decisionmaking from central to regional levels, designed to increase government legitimacy and efficiency, actually provided an opportunity for regional leaders to build independent power bases. This trend, in conjunction with the economic slump of the 1980s, further eroded the unity of the federation.

A History of Yugoslavia
A History of Yugoslavia

Author: Marie-Janine Calic

Publisher: Purdue University Press

Published: 2019-02-15

Total Pages: 443

ISBN-13: 1612495648

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Why did Yugoslavia fall apart? Was its violent demise inevitable? Did its population simply fall victim to the lure of nationalism? How did this multinational state survive for so long, and where do we situate the short life of Yugoslavia in the long history of Europe in the twentieth century? A History of Yugoslavia provides a concise, accessible, comprehensive synthesis of the political, cultural, social, and economic life of Yugoslavia—from its nineteenth-century South Slavic origins to the bloody demise of the multinational state of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Calic takes a fresh and innovative look at the colorful, multifaceted, and complex history of Yugoslavia, emphasizing major social, economic, and intellectual changes from the turn of the twentieth century and the transition to modern industrialized mass society. She traces the origins of ethnic, religious, and cultural divisions, applying the latest social science approaches, and drawing on the breadth of recent state-of-the-art literature, to present a balanced interpretation of events that takes into account the differing perceptions and interests of the actors involved. Uniquely, Calic frames the history of Yugoslavia for readers as an essentially open-ended process, undertaken from a variety of different regional perspectives with varied composite agenda. She shuns traditional, deterministic explanations that notorious Balkan hatreds or any other kind of exceptionalism are to blame for Yugoslavia’s demise, and along the way she highlights the agency of twentieth-century modern mass society in the politicization of differences. While analyzing nuanced political and social-economic processes, Calic describes the experiences and emotions of ordinary people in a vivid way. As a result, her groundbreaking work provides scholars and learned readers alike with an accessible, trenchant, and authoritative introduction to Yugoslavia's complex history.

Regional Development in Communist Yugoslavia
Regional Development in Communist Yugoslavia

Author: Dijana Plestina

Publisher:

Published: 2019-09-13

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 9780367285449

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The brutal war now raging in what was Yugoslavia, the author argues, is fueled not merely by interethnic hatred but also by longstanding disparities in economic well-being among republics and regions. The Communist leadership, having stated its intention when it took power to eliminate economic disparities, nonetheless failed to confront the conflict of interests that distorted the country's economic policy--and thus never worked out a coherent strategy for regional development. Interregional tensions were inflamed by the failure to close the gap between wealthy and poor areas, directly contributing to the breakup of the country. Basing her argument on longitudinal data and on in-depth interviews with Yugoslav leaders at federal and regional levels (Milovan Djilas, Svetozar Vukmanovic-Tempo, Bosko Gluscevic, Hasan Zolic, and several dozen others), Dijana Pleština examines and assesses the economic inequalities as well as the effects that the leadership's regional policies had on them. She shows that despite the mandate for equalization that was part of socialist doctrine, Yugoslav leaders were at first unwilling, and later unable, to formulate policies that would enhance the economic well-being of the poorest regions. Instead, they adopted a strategy of "top-down" growth, which enhanced the further development of the wealthier regions. Later, partially in an effort to placate the disadvantaged, they shifted funds to some of the less-developed regions. Rather than promoting equality, such ad hoc "solutions" fostered competition for scarce resources and intensified political cleavages. Pleština also looks at how the devolution of decisionmaking from central to regional levels, designed to increase government legitimacy and efficiency, actually provided an opportunity for regional leaders to build independent power bases. This trend, in conjunction with the economic slump of the 1980s, further eroded the unity of the federation.

Yugoslav Socialism
Yugoslav Socialism

Author: Harold Lydall

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13:

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Drawing on a wide range of Yugoslav materials, this book describes the origins and development of the unique Yugoslav economic system of 'socialist self-management'. It highlights the achievements and shortcomings of this distinctive industrial economic system and provides a revealing pictureof how the system operates in practice and how this differs from the theory.

Regime Change in the Yugoslav Successor States
Regime Change in the Yugoslav Successor States

Author: Mieczysław P. Boduszyński

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2010-04-26

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 0801899192

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In the 1990s, amid political upheaval and civil war, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia dissolved into five successor states. The subsequent independence of Montenegro and Kosovo brought the total number to seven. Balkan scholar and diplomat to the region Mieczyslaw P. Boduszynski examines four of those states—Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia—and traces their divergent paths toward democracy and Euro-Atlantic integration over the past two decades. Boduszynski argues that regime change in the Yugoslav successor states was powerfully shaped by both internal and external forces: the economic conditions on the eve of independence and transition and the incentives offered by the European Union and other Western actors to encourage economic and political liberalization. He shows how these factors contributed to differing formulations of democracy in each state. The author engages with the vexing problems of creating and sustaining democracy when circumstances are not entirely supportive of the effort. He employs innovative concepts to measure the quality of and prospects for democracy in the Balkan region, arguing that procedural indicators of democratization do not adequately describe the stability of liberalism in post-communist states. This unique perspective on developments in the region provides relevant lessons for regime change in the larger post-communist world. Scholars, practitioners, and policymakers will find the book to be a compelling contribution to the study of comparative politics, democratization, and European integration.

Europe from the Balkans to the Urals
Europe from the Balkans to the Urals

Author: Renéo Lukic

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13: 9780198292005

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The disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union in 1991 shed entirely new light on the character of their political systems. There is now a need to re-examine many of the standard interpretations of Soviet and Yugoslav politics. This book is a comparative study of the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union - as multinational, federal communist states - and the reaction of European and US foreign policy to the parallel collapses of these nations. The authors describe the structural similarities in the destabilization of the two countries, providing great insight into the demise of both.

The South Slav Conflict
The South Slav Conflict

Author: Raju G.C Thomas

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-12-12

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1000525457

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First Published in 1996. In identifying the causes of such a national and international failure in conflict management, The South Slav Conflict becomes a valuable case study in comparative politics and international relations. Edited by Raju G .C . Thomas and H. Richard Frim and, is unique among these by virtue of its thoroughly interdisciplinary approach to the causes and consequences of the war. The book’s great strength begins with its forthright assertion that no serious attempt to explain the current cycle of genocide and revenge among Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians can avoid the inherent complexity of the factors that transform ed Yugoslavia from one of the most pluralist of European communist states into a theater of human misery.

The Croatian Spring
The Croatian Spring

Author: Ante Batovic

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-06-30

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 1786721848

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Nationalism is a key topic within Balkan Studies, and one of the driving forces behind the bloody and difficult history of the region. Using primary sources not previously utilized by western scholars, this book documents the 'Croatian Spring' - a national and liberal movement that began in the mid-sixties after the fall of the vice president and head of the Yugoslav secret police Aleksandar Rankovic. The author chronicles these developments of democratisation and de-centralisation of communist Yugoslavia, placing them in the wider context of the Cold War and Yugoslav relations with the Soviet Union and the UnitedStates. Tito managed to balance national stability and his relations with East and West, until he felt that the national-liberal movements challenged his authority, and thus threaten the very foundations of the Yugoslav state. From late 1971 onwards, the liberal political and cultural classes of Croatia and other republics were abruptly purged, impoverishing Yugoslav leadership for subsequent decades.Batovic also considers the role of the West, who felt a centralised and stable Yugoslavia was in their interests and quickly accommodated themselves to the repression of the reformist movement.