Les dimensions économiques de la question nationale en Yougoslavie
Authors: Shoup Paul 
Published: November 2010

Economie Dimensions of the National Dispute in Yugoslavia.

The problem of the economic causes of the national controversy in Yugoslavia can be divided into two broad categories : the controversy over aid to the under-developed republics, and the role of the federal government in the economy. In respect to the former of these two problems, the Yugoslav government has extended considerable aid to the underdeveloped republics, but differences between these areas and the more advanced regions have persisted and, in many respects, grown more pronounced. Migration to industrialized areas, which might mitigate some of these differences, has occurred largely within republics rather than across republic boundaries, while in certain areas — notably Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo — the agricultural population remains at, or exceeds, pre-World War II levels. The federal fund to aid underdeveloped republics, which was established in 1965, has been the subject of acrimonious debate, most recently in 1970, when the time came to renew the fund's existence. Slovenia and Croatia argued that the fund should be turned into a conventional banking operation providing loans at regular rates of interest. The underdeveloped republics resisted this solution. The compromise finally approved called for 1.94 % of the social product of all the republics to go to the fund, while terms of repayment of loans made by the fund to the underdeveloped republics were tightened.

The dispute centering on the role of the federal government in the economy has divided the country along different lines, pitting Slovenia and especially Croatia against Serbia. The origins of this conflict lie in the economic reforms of 1965, which failed to reduced the power of the federal government in the economy to the degree expected by Croatia and Slovenia, and at the same time encouraged the emergence of new centers of economic power in the banks and trading organizations in Belgrade. The Slovenians and the Croats demanded the liquidation of the federal banks, the abolition of « extra- budgetary accounts», and the end of all federal investment programs. The Croatians also wished to receive a greater share of foreign currency earned in Yugoslavia, and asserted that investments by Serbian firms in Croatia were a form of exploitation.

The constitutional amendment of 1971, by liquidating most extra-budgetary accounts of the federation, ending federal investments, and providing for control over earnings of banks by their depositors, sought to end the problems just alluded to. Failure to solve the question of allocation of foreign currency, and the slowness with wich the constitutional reforms were implemented, (resulted in continued controversy and played a major role in the disturbances in Croatia in 1971.

Yugoslavia faces many complex issues in alleviating the economic sources of national controversy. A basic problem lies in the fact that economic demands in Croatia and Slovenia reflect the needs of a growingly affluent society, while in the south the problem is still one of encouraging economic development and overcoming backwardness.