Search

The aim of the work is to examine the relationship between the legislative and the executive power in socialist Yugoslavia, in order to answer the question whether and to what extent the principles of the assembly system had really been constitutionally guaranteed. The author analyzes competencies and mutual relationship between the legislative and executive power in the four constitutional acts (1946, 1953, 1963, 1974). The constitutional acts proclaimed that the Assembly was the supreme organ of power, while the constitutional theory claimed that it was the assembly system of power although the constitutional acts contained competencies of the political-executive organs which gave them considerable influence. This had been the least visible in the 1953 and 1963 constitutional acts, while the 1946 and 1974 constitutions seriously strengthened the position of the executive power. Therefore, the author only reluctantly concludes that the Yugoslav constitutional system had the features of the assembly system. More precisely, it had been a kind of mixed system with the elements of the assembly system and the separation of powers, at least in the 1946 and 1974 constitutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the successes and failures of workers' councils in the self-management of Yugoslavia after the 1950s. Topics include the formation of the workers' councils amidst conflict between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union, the legal power of the councils, and the response of the councils to political reforms. The article also discusses the economic development of the country in the 1950s, the education levels of the workers in the councils, and the working class. It is suggested that workers' councils in Yugoslavia were democratic and influential but lacked social powers.