CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Mihaljevic, Domagoj |
|---|---|
| Title | Igniting the Revolutionary Light: The State Formation and the Introduction of Workers Self-management in Yugoslavia, 1945-1950 |
| Summary | The aim of my thesis is to historically reconstruct the political and economic developments in period 1945-1950 that led to the introduction of workers’ self—management in Yugoslavia. In contrast to the existing dominant approaches that focus on the party vanguard and its proclamations, seeing the Tito-Stalin split in 1948 as the constitutive historical point, in my research I plan to emphasize many contradictions of the process and remarkable responsiveness of the party. I wish to argue the Tito-Stalin split was only of the challenges the Yugoslav Communist party faced in the postwar period. Although it could be argued it was the most important one, the impact on policies was partial and temporary. I my thesis I intend to show how the growing need for massive mobilizations and workers sacrifice in the postwar reconstruction of the economy introduced pressures and forced the party leadership to democratize the factory life. Although the party wanted to move from it in the early 1947 and assert the party manager’s authority (reform “liberal” strategy), international pressures, among it the Tito-Stalin split, only exacerbated the need for democratization. By following this approach, it enabled me to recognize the crucial finding: the policies of labor regulation adopted amidst the international insecurity were the key element of the construction, organization and constant adaptions of the internal state institutions, concretely, state workers’ institutions. The policy of labor regulation was crucial primarily to secure the capital for the defense capacities and to ensure the broad social alliance guaranteeing the state leadership to the Communist party of Yugoslavia. In this context emerged many state institutions, among them worker’s institutions like trade unions, production brigades and, in the end, workers’ councils. With the introduction of workers’ councils’ workers were given the right to regulate themselves, that is, the process of work in factory. |
| Supervisor | Balazs Trencsenyi |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/mihaljevic_domagoj.pdf |
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