Mitteilungsblatt des Instituts für soziale Bewegungen Heft 33
Aleksandar Jakir: Workers' Self-Management in Tito's Yugoslavia Revisited
The paper examines the connection between economic development and the genesis of different
forms of nationalism in socialist Yugoslavia with its specific system of workers selfmanagement.
It seems that the pivots of divergent national interests reflecting particular economic
situations of industrial concerns in individual republics were engaged, on the federal
level, in a fierce competition for the limited economic resources, in other words, national rivalry
found expression primarily in economic terms, subsequently to be emotionally charged
with the rather familiar historical, linguistic and cultural arguments (as became clear in the
movement known as the „Croatian Spring“ of 1971). The preliminary results of a research
project on „Socialist State Enterprises and the Spread of Nationalism on a Regional Level: the
Example of Yugoslavia, 1953–1974“ seem to support the view that a national mobilization
took place only after economic conflicts had taken hold of large parts of the population. At
least the results of research we have conducted so far seem to support the view that a national
mobilization took place only after economic conflicts had taken hold of large parts of the
population. In other words, we are confronted here with an interesting case in which primarily
specialist debates on economic questions developed into issues of nationalism involving
larger segments of society.