Gospodarjenje v socializmu: oris gospodarske zgodovine Slovenije 1945 - 1990
Gespeichert in:
| 1. Verfasser: | |
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| Format: | Buch |
| Sprache: | Slovenian English |
| Veröffentlicht: |
Ljubljana
Studia Humanitatis
2013
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| Schlagworte: | |
| Online-Zugang: | Abstract Inhaltsverzeichnis |
| Beschreibung: | Enth. "Overview of Slovenia's economy 1945-1990" in engl. Sprache Bibliografija: str. 136-139 |
| Beschreibung: | 139 S. Ill. 24 cm |
| ISBN: | 9789616798365 |
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Datensatz im Suchindex
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| adam_text | OVERVIEW
with the principal findings on Slovenia’s economy in the period 1945
till 1990, including some features on the Yugoslav economy
The brief historical overview presents essential data on Slovenia’s
economy in the period 1945-1990. Its emphasis is on the practical as-
pects, results and problems of economic development: On the achieve-
ments of the people and economic policy on the one hand and on the
reasons, economic problems and conflicts that eventually brought this
period to an end on the other. This paper provides indirectly some an-
swers to allegations and biased information about the economic devel-
opment after World War II.
Slovenia was at that time one of the republics in the Yugoslav feder-
ation. This paper thus includes an overview of the changes in the Yu-
goslav economic system and some basic economic data. It covers
forty-five years of the socialist economic and political system, hence
the title The Socialist Economy’. Naturally, the paper deals with the so-
cialist system of that time and does not seek to answer the problems
of the present day.
The main topic of this paper is the economy. The additional informa-
tion relates to education, health care and social assistance, all this with
a view to providing a broader picture of the living conditions by taking
into account other essential elements of development.
The national liberation movement during World War II in Yugoslavia
was a constituent part of the anti-fascist coalition of the Allies. With
massive human casualties, the peoples of Yugoslavia and their leaders
descended from the ranks of the masses won the right to direct their
post-war economic development in accordance with their aspirations,
in particular to overcome the economic backwardness of their country
and satisfy their basic needs for employment, education, health care,
shelter and culture. Mass employment stands only as one of the major
achievements of that period. The comparison of these and other data
with the previous period of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia convincingly
points to the achievements of Slovenia and Yugoslavia in the period
78
after World War II. The post-war period also saw the elimination of eco-
nomic and social inequalities that had triggered a crisis situation in the
Kingdom. The progress benefited the majority of the population and
alleviated the situation of the marginalised and oppressed strata of the
society. During the twenty year period 1919/1921 to 1938/1940, Yu-
goslavia’s real gross domestic product1 increased by 84% and in two
decades of post-war development, 1949-1951 and 1969-1971, it rose
by 302%. The underdeveloped economic structure of the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia is reflected in the statistics on foreign trade. The country’s
involvement in international trade was low. Its total exports predomi-
nantly included low-processed products and agricultural products and
its imports mainly consisted of coal, petroleum products, foodstuffs,
iron, with a minimum participation of machinery and means of transport.
In the period 1950-1980, Yugoslavia was ranked among the fast
growing world economies and was considered to be a medium devel-
oped country: the average annual growth rate of real social product
was 6.2%. This statistical measurement in accordance with the method-
ology valid in Yugoslavia at that time did not cover the extensive devel-
opment of health services, education and other intangible activities. An
international statistical research, conducted by UN in mid 80s, shows
a declining difference between GDP per capita in Yugoslavia in com-
parison with West European countries. But 1980s were mostly a time
of economic slowdown that led to stagnation and uncontrolled inflation.
Slovenia’s economic development was slightly faster. In Slovenia,
the per capita output always exceeded the Yugoslav average; however,
this difference increased over the years and was double the total Yu-
goslav output towards the end of the 1980s. This advantage was due
to the Yugoslav economic area which enjoyed a considerable protection
1 In paper are used both terms, social product and gross domestic product.
According to the Yugoslav statistics, the social product, i.e. national income
plus depreciation, comprised eight activities: mining and industry, agriculture,
forestry, building industry, transport, trade, catering and tourism, the manufac-
turing part of craft industry and urban facilities. If costs were added to it, it was
called social gross product. Naturally, without any duplication of costs and re-
sults among activities. The gross domestic product (GDP) according to We-
stern methodology is a different, broader category that covers a number of
services. In addition to the activities indicated above, according to the value
added principle, it also includes education, health care, social assistance and
other public and social services, financial services (banking, insurance, stock
exchange, rental of premises and other business services), public administra-
tion and defence.
79
from imports. Slovenia as the economically most developed part of the
country sold much of its output to the other republics. This stimulated
its development and resulted in a positive balance of trade with the rest
of the country. Towards the end of this period, it sold more than one
half of its annual output to other parts of Yugoslavia and abroad.
I.
From the perspective of national economy, Slovenia’s post-war de-
velopment took place roughly in three stages: In the fist stage, Slovenia
industrialised its economy, in the second stage it developed an export-
oriented and internationally open economy and eventually made its way
towards post-industrial activities and achieved substantial technological
development. The development followed the shift of the population away
from agriculture; however, Slovenia simultaneously considerably in-
creased its agricultural production. At that time, Slovenia also estab-
lished the widely available public health, pension and disability insurance
and social welfare systems. The standard of living of the population
began to rise, at first slowly and then faster.
The period of 1945 was marked by the reconstruction of the war-rav-
aged country and the building of the foundations of economic develop-
ment (the base industry, electrification). Technical preparations for the
reconstruction began during the war itself. Professionals of the bodies
of the Slovenian National Liberation Council devised the plans for the
reconstruction of the post-war economy since the second half of 1944.
They, for instance, produced a plan of a unified electricity industry net-
work of Slovenia connected with the rest of Yugoslavia. The orientation
towards the development of local knowledge and skills, attracting and
training of domestic experts was one of the characteristics of the social-
ist period from its very beginning.
In period 1939-1954, Slovenia doubled its steel production, tripled
its production of lead-zinc ore, considerably increase the production of
cement and other construction materials, more than tripled its electricity
production and lignite extraction. The number of settlements electrified
after the war practically doubled until 1953. The production of machin-
ery and other capital equipment in this period (1939-1954) increased
by almost seven times, the manufacture of reproduction material dou-
bled, and the manufacture of essential consumer goods by only 60%,
as the focus was on the development of the basic economic activities.
From today’s perspective, Slovenia and Yugoslavia launched structural
80
economic reforms and transformed the structure of the economy inher-
ited from the previous period. They developed their industrial activities
and economic structure in general in a similar way as had been done
much earlier by France, Germany or Belgium: the emphasis was on
machinery and steel production and energy supply. These structural
reforms were closely associated with the new economic system. They
were followed by several radical measures aimed at eliminating barriers
to rapid development and creating the material basis for development
to the benefit of the majority of people, i.e. nationalising production. At
first, the property of the occupying forces and their collaborators was
confiscated and property of the enemy was sequestrated and placed
in compulsory administration. The constitution adopted in 1946 paved
the way for the general nationalisation of privately-owned businesses
against payment of compensation that did not correspond to the actual
economic value of the seized property. Foreign-owned property in min-
ing, industry, banking and insurance business was also expropriated.
As far as national obligations are concerned, immediately after the
war Yugoslavia undertook to honour all international commitments of
the former country, consisting mainly of loans, and gradually repaid
them. However, the U.S. also required the repayment of all claims by
private American companies and individuals. The fact is that a great
deal of the country’s gold reserves that had been taken away by the
royal runaway government was stored in the U.S.A. The U.S.A. thus
succeeded in making the delivery of the Yugoslav gold reserves condi-
tional upon the repayment of claims of U.S.A. companies and individ-
uals from the reserves.
The land reform carried out in 1945 and 1946 deprived large
landowners, religious institutions of most of their land, mostly without
compensation, and confiscated the property held by Germans. In Yu-
goslavia, the livelihood of the majority of the population depended on
land. The purpose of the reform was a more equitable distribution of
land among those who cultivated it. Land was mainly distributed (free
of charge) to farmers and partly for the establishment of state-owned
agricultural holdings. Several years later, the maximum landholding, 10
hectares of arable land, was determined (secured through expropriation
against compensation) with a view to restrict the stratification of the
rural population in terms of wealth.
The expropriated owners nurtured discontent and carried out oppos-
ing activities for decades afterwards.
81
An old slogan saying “Land to farmers and factories to workers” was
often publicly displayed at that time. These measures, adopted to the
benefit of ordinary people, particularly those directed against collabo-
rators of the occupiers, war profiteers, and foreign capital received wide
popular support. And the Elections to the Constituent Assembly Act of
1945 was actually the first piece of legislation to have introduced uni-
versal suffrage for women.
The implementation of Yugoslavia’s first five-year plan was soon
hindered by a blockade imposed by the Soviet Union and other East
European countries. Yugoslavia’s development was in conflict with
hegemonic aspirations of Stalin and Soviet politics. As a result, the
communist party in East European countries and other labour parties
in Europe unilaterally severed their ties with the Communist Party of
Yugoslavia under Soviet pressure (July 1948). The Soviet Union then
unilaterally terminated the agreement on economic cooperation and
suspended the supply of goods and equipment for joint investment proj-
ects, with Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland following suit. Simul-
taneously, a serious draught in 1950 significantly reduced agricultural
output. Already before that date, compulsory sale of agricultural prod-
ucts met with resistance from farmers, which had a negative impact on
agricultural production. At the same time, agriculture was collectivised:
farmers were left a croft and some livestock; everything else was trans-
ferred to so called working cooperatives. This gave rise to serious moral
and political consequences and, as a result, the political leaders aban-
doned this type of cooperatives.
In the first post-war period, when everything was in short supply, cen-
tralised distribution of commodities was necessary. Like elsewhere in
Europe, food rationing tickets were introduced in an attempt to prevent
the expansion of the black market, trading in food and other goods in
violation of the regulations and at high prices.
Despite the blockade the Yugoslav industrial, mining and energy out-
put in 1952 was almost two-thirds higher than in 1939. However, it was
accompanied by increasingly bureaucratic methods of state adminis-
tration in managing the economy. In the period 1947-1951, the Yu-
goslav state sector included most of the nation’s economy. As much as
two thirds of income was allocated from the national budget, and the
budgets of sub-units were an integral part of the budget of the next
higher unit. Companies were also dependent on the state budget based
on their activity plans: they paid their surplus income into the budget
and received budget subsidies when they suffered a loss. All major de-
82
cisions, the production plan, recipients of the supply of goods, the num-
ber of employees, wages, prices of raw materials and finished products,
and the type of investment to be undertaken were decided by the state
and the planning authorities.
Deviations also occurred under the influence and the political pres-
sure of the Soviet Union. Economic policy relied on detailed state five-
year plans to ensure harmonious development. However, real-life cir-
cumstances required a modification of such plans. Planning institutions
were overwhelmed with modification applications.
Detailed central planning was abandoned under the law governing
planned management of the economy at the end of 1950 and replaced
by a plan of basic proportions, i.e. five-year plans that defined the basic
relationships, in particular the distribution of national income based on
production plans. One of the most prominent proportions was the ratio
between the consumption fund (wages, living standard) and rate of ac-
cumulation and social funds (resources for investments and social wel-
fare, defence and administration). Ownership transformation of the so-
cialist state-owned assets into socially-owned assets was simultaneously
carried out. From economic and legal perspective, socially-owned assets
were defined as assets ‘owned by everyone and anyone’. This gave rise
to the criticism and vulgar conception of socially-owned assets as no
one’s assets. However, the old, original idea is expressed in the Latin
sayings ‘quod commune est meum non est’ and ‘quod commune est
meum est’, i.e. what is common property is not mine and what is com-
mon property is also mine. Social ownership of assets was an unequiv-
ocal answer to private appropriation monopoly that is characteristic for
private property. The purpose was to make workers independent of the
capitalist owners and state monopolistic capital managers. On the one
hand, socially-owned property served as a basis for work of all and for
work-based appropriation, by taking into account the fact that work ac-
quired social character through division of labour. It was, at the same
time, a form of individual property, an individual property right. It is human
work alone that formed the basis for the management and appropriation
of results of common work and other entitlements. Humans/workers en-
tered into a variety of economic relations with others. The decision-mak-
ing process in workers’ councils and through other similar mechanisms
provided for social management of means of production. Management
was based on the principle of distribution according to work, i.e. salaries
in socialism were distributed according to the work done (not based on
the needs). Moreover, management also included planning as well as
83
protection and control measures, state coercive measures for resolving
conflicts over the distribution of the produced results and watching over
the equality of the working people. The purpose of these mechanisms
was to prevent employees from usurping the common property and, on
the other hand, to prevent the preservation of the elements of state or
private property relations concerning socially-owned assets.
This was the beginning of decentralisation, i.e. the transfer of man-
agement to companies simultaneously with the onset of workers’ self-
management in companies. The country’s leaders realised that the peo-
ple were not only threatened by the capitalist elite but also by the state
itself and its bureaucratic apparatus. On the one hand, this turnabout
was ideologically based on the Marxist claim of withering away of the
state’s functions in the economy and withering away of the state in gen-
eral. On the other hand, it was based on the assumption that market
and trade laws could not be abolished in socialism. The new planning
act and the introduction of socially-owned property ended the period of
administrative and centralised management of the economy and an-
nounced the introduction of the planned market system.
At several sessions of political governing bodies, the principal short-
comings of the Bolshevik variant of socialism were identified. In this re-
gard, policies on legality were redefined. An important event in this area
was the plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of Yugoslavia in 1950. Moreover, the role of the Communist Party
of Yugoslavia had to be redefined in order to prevent it from becoming
identified with the state and depriving the masses of power through the
state (the party congress in 1952). At that time, Yugoslavia turned away
from the Soviet state and party centralism and gradually developed a
decentralised economy, introduced economic rights of employees,
companies and nations and introduced market economy. Most of the
credit for this went to Edvard Kardelj and Boris Kidric, together with
similar-minded prominent political figures from other Yugoslav re-
publics. Moscow watched closely these changes and Edvard Kardelj
was considered as the main renegade.
Yugoslavia’s revolt against Stalin in 1948 was undoubtedly an act of
risk. The West doubted that Tito and his aides would be able to with-
stand military pressure, economic blockade and Stalin’s attempt to
achieve Tito’s replacement with someone from the ranks of the Yu-
goslav Communist Party leadership. The Soviet side urged Yugoslav
communists and the people to replace the political leadership and sent
a number of its agents to Yugoslavia. The Soviets looked for allies in
84
particular among the leading ranks. The East European Warsaw Pact
forces staged demonstrative manoeuvres of the military and sparked a
number of skirmishes. Yugoslavia was on the brink of war. There was
an urgent need to allocate more money for defence. Simultaneously,
the government had to take vital steps to combat internal Stalinist par-
tisans and agencies. This small country’s revolt against a world super-
power won Tito and Yugoslavia a world-wide reputation.
At that time, in 1948, Italy, in conjunction with the U.S.A., Great Britain
and France, staged a political manoeuvre on Yugoslavia’s western bor-
der (tripartite declaration) aimed at annexing the city of Trieste to Italy,
the ”Free territory of Trieste“. Yugoslavia rose against this attempt to
revise the Paris Peace Treaty. The situation worsened again in 1953
and Yugoslavia decided to resist by armed force. A compromise solu-
tion followed according to which the administration of Zone A and Tri-
este was handed to Italy and the administration of Zone B with west
part of Istria to Yugoslavia.
With the U.S. military and economic assistance Yugoslavia started
opening its economy to a greater extent to the West. It is also important
to note that Yugoslavia did not joint the NATO despite pressure to do
so. Later, in mid-1950s, the country also terminated the agreement on
military assistance with the U.S.A.
Workers’ participation in self-management started under slogan ”Fac-
tories - to workers“. Initially, it was more a political than economic right
and independence of companies was still highly restricted. Companies
were not even allowed to dispose their depreciation funds. The state
also centralised depreciation. Slovenia expressed a great deal of dis-
satisfaction with this fact which led to disinvestment of companies. Fur-
ther steps in introducing market economy, employees’ rights and inde-
pendence of companies met with political resistance, statist views, and
in some period also great-Serbian views and omnipresent dogmatic be-
liefs. Opposition was also present in factories and people without dog-
matic beliefs. Designers of the system were aware of the perils of po-
litical arbitrariness for socialism and of the need to strengthen the
socialist democracy, i.e. not only the need to implement the political but
also economic rights of the people and companies. One of the leading
politicians of that time wrote: ”The management should be bottom-up,
our political orientation must not be a state that takes humane care of
85
‘stupid people’. Socialism can only grow from the initiative of million-
strong masses and the advanced role of the socialist forces. The state’s
regulatory powers in the economy then only serve as a support to so-
cialism in a similar way as it supports the capitalist economic order in
other countries.“
The first steps towards strengthening the companies and workers’ in-
fluence were made by gradually decentralising depreciation. Then, in
the 1960’s, centralised investment funds were abolished (at the level of
the federation, republics and districts). The funds were under a severe
pressure of political wishes and subjective criteria in asset distribution.
A principle was established that companies should independently di-
spose of their income in a market economy. However, there were pres-
sures to the contrary, i.e. that the market game should be regulated. The
main topic of discussion in Yugoslavia was equalisation of economic
conditions: the society should appropriate the part of company’s revenue
that is not generated by its economic activity but derives from extraor-
dinary natural or market conditions (extra profit, rent). This discussion
was reflected in prescribed prices for various products. The controversy
about it continued. Another response to unequal conditions was the cre-
ation of the Federal Fund for Promoting Economic Development of Less
Developed Republics and of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo. Later,
in 1986-90, as much as 1.56% of the Yugoslav social productwas allo-
cated for this purpose. At that time, the companies-contributors to this
fund from more developed republics invested one half of their obligations
in joint projects with companies from less developed areas. Moreover,
one half per cent of the social product was allocated from the federal
budget for disability and war veteran pensions and other social activities
in less developed republics and Kosovo.
A critical breakthrough in political efforts to establish a socialist mar-
ket economy, market-oriented management of workers’, to strengthen
the economic role of the republics and to restrict the competencies of
the federation was made at the beginning of 1970s. In the context of
these economic and political changes, came also the removal of Alek-
sandar Ranković from the ranks of Yugoslavia’s political leaders at their
meeting in 1966.
III.
After the blockade and economic slowdown, Slovenia continued its
rapid advancement from a semi-agricultural to an industrial country and
the construction of power plants. As much as 60% of Slovenia’s popu-
86
lation lived from agriculture in 1931 and more than 80% lived in the
country. Slovenia was an agrarian overpopulated country, passive in
terms of agricultural production, with predominating small agricultural
holdings. About 30,000 farming families lived under semi-feudal condi-
tions, without land of their own and in poor dwelling conditions (cot-
tagers). After World War I, during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, property
of foreign residents was nationalised and sequestrated, but this yielded
poor results. Land reform was also initiated by its implementation was
delayed until 1931. At long last it included 77 large estates but had no
significant improvement for the farmers.
A year before the outbreak of World War II, 75,000 people in Slove-
nia were employed in industry and mining and approximately the
same number also worked in these sectors in 1946. The period that
followed was marked by a very rapid growth which then petered out
into a recession that lasted several years. Industrialisation thus oc-
curred mainly in the period 1954-1980 when the number of industrial
workers rose to 350,000.
The period of industrialisation in Slovenia and Yugoslavia was rather
autarchic, as manufacturing was protected against foreign competition
by customs duties. In this initial development stage, many other Euro-
pean countries adopted similar methods. In the initial period, industrial
development was also accompanied by a transfer of income from agri-
culture, housing and other activities to industry. On the other hand, this
opened up new possibilities of employment and particularly reducing
agrarian overpopulation. A positive aspect of the Yugoslav economic
policy of the time was that the country’s economic structure was not
developed under the influence of interests of developed countries and
international corporations. In the fist stage of the transition from under-
development, Yugoslavia developed its capacities which enabled its
breakthrough in the international market. This particularly applied to
Slovenia.
A turning point was the Yugoslav economic reform in 1965, introduc-
ing market economy and opening to the world. Special emphasis was
placed on exports to the West. The basis of the reform was the align-
ment of domestic prices with international prices and devaluation of the
dinar.
Until then, Slovenian economy was often too unilaterally focused on
sales on the Yugoslav market and, simultaneously, on purchases from
the West. The belief that exports were essential for Slovenia, i.e. that
its manufacturing should be more oriented to demanding foreign mar-
87
kets, became firmly established in Slovenia’s economic policy. Involve-
ment in international division of labour, in particular exports to devel-
oped countries in the West, became its long-standing economic policy
and achievement in that period. From this point of view, a new interna-
tional seaport of Koper was a historic economic project of that time. In
other parts of Yugoslavia, reform efforts met with resistance and for the
most part subsided. The orientation towards production for the domestic
market, i.e. import substitution, was only gradually abandoned. Yu-
goslavia as a whole actually remained dependent on imports from the
West and ran a trade deficit.
In the course of time, Slovenia devised a number of strategies defin-
ing its priorities in individual branches of activity. Slovenian economic
policy based many of them on the fact that Slovenia has no raw mate-
rials and it is short on energy resources. The implementation of these
strategies usually involved complications and delays. However, Slove-
nia succeeded in directing its development towards the strategic ob-
jectives. In some cases, the planning and measures were the result of
severe difficulties: the energy sector saw the collapse of the electricity
system in 1973. Long-term electricity supply was then ensured through
extensive expert work and investments.
Other strategies related to scientific and technological research, to
home building industry and, later on, environmental protection (intro-
duction of the ”dinar for the environment“ for large projects), and the
development of international shipping and airtransport. Some of these
strategies, such as local water supply, energy supply including gas, mo-
torway networks, have continued to represent the crucial element in
the development up to the present time.
A new element in the post-war period was the uniform regional de-
velopment strategy, i.e. polycentric development. In addition to the
economy, polycentric development also included spatial development
of school and hospital facilities throughout Slovenia, regional banking
network and scientific institutions. In this way, Slovenia succeeded in
limiting the concentration of the population in the cities.
Slovenia’s long-term agricultural policy after the war paved the tran-
sition from natural to market oriented agricultural production. Self-suf-
ficiency in agricultural produce increased to nearly 80% and the pro-
portion of rural population dropped to 7.6% (according to the 1991
census). An increase was also recorded in higher-level processed agri-
cultural produce, particularly in livestock production. Slovenia had al-
ready developed agricultural education and technical support to agri-
88
culture a century earlier. In the period after World War II, it became
known for its systematic development of agricultural knowledge and its
practical implementation. At the beginning of 1960s, a serious deadlock
occurred: the idea of agricultural development as an entirely market ac-
tivity prevailed. As inflation soon destroyed agricultural price parities
set during the economic reform of 1965, market revenue in agriculture
declined and production stagnated. After that, Slovenia adopted the
agricultural policy for 1970s. Agriculture was defined as an economic
activity which earns its revenue on the market, and economic plan and
policy measures and specialist services are mechanisms that support
organised commodity production and prevent market blindness. In the
period that followed, Slovenia achieved above-average growth in agri-
cultural production. Moreover, Slovenia was the first in Yugoslavia to
devise a policy of preservation of mountain farms and measures to pro-
mote specialisation of farms and development of supplementary activ-
ities such as agritourism.
Slovenia also had a small number of large agricultural combines, en-
terprise groups and cooperatives that employed a host of professionals.
These holdings were engaged in agricultural production and had ap-
propriate processing and sales facilities. Their total share in Slovenia’s
areas under cultivation was small; however, these combines were large
agri-food establishments in terms of the European standards. They sold
their agricultural and organisational know-how in the cultivation of large
areas, cattle and pig farming and processing of the produce to many
countries across the world. For instance, the agri-food combine of
Upper Carniola, including slaughterhouse, oil manufacturing plant and
other facilities managed and cultivated almost 2000 hectares of land
and 3000 hectares of forests and employed a work force of 1400
(1990).
Exports and economic expansion were the result of the projects of
common economic interest. There was an increase in the number of
highly qualified technical experts that proved themselves at home and
in construction and other major construction and maintenance works
abroad, i.e. in Iraq, Libya, India. They alone, and sometimes in coop-
eration with foreign experts, carried out a number of projects. One of
their projects was the challenging construction of the Karavanke Tun-
nel and new cities such as Nova Gorica and Velenje, anti-flood regula-
tion of the Sava River basin, aluminium electrolysis plant in Kidričevo
and electric blast furnaces in Jesenice. New electric power plants cre-
ated the conditions for a 36-fold increase in electricity production in the
89
period 1939-1989. New banks were set up in Vienna, Frankfurt and
New York. New research institutes were established in Slovenia, such
as Jozef Stefan Institute, National Institute of Chemistry, University
Medical Centre of Ljubljana, and University of Maribor.
Employment of local work force was planned on the construction of
manufacturing and commercial facilities particularly in small towns.
Companies granted scholarships to gifted young people, making it con-
ditional upon their taking employment with the company for a specific
period after completing their studies, and set up their own vocational
colleges and clinics. Thus many companies became stakeholders in
Slovenia’s universal rural development. To a large extent, this was also
due to Slovenia’s administrative and political setup: municipalities were
the basic political units of the state and simultaneously the political self-
governing units on a local level. They were large (there was a total of
70 of them in Slovenia) and had a strong economic hinterland.
Municipalities were made up of local communities as a form of direct
democracy of the people. They comprised settlements, parts of towns
or several villages. Residents of these communities considerably im-
proved their living conditions through voluntary work: they introduced
electricity, built water supply systems, local roads, cultural centres, and
nursery schools and children’s playgrounds in towns and organised
care for dependent adults.
Slovenia upgraded its strategy of international economic relations
since the early 1960s. For a long time, Slovenia’s import to export ratio
remained relatively low, in particular, it had a deficit in commodities with
the Western, hard-currency area. This deficit was more or less offset
against the positive balance of trade in services, foreign tourism and
international transport services. However, the negative trends in com-
modities with the West were also gradually reversed. In the period
1981-1988, more than three fourths of Slovenia s commodity exports
went to the Western hard-currency markets and simultaneously main-
tained a positive balance of exports with this area. Considering its sales
to the other Yugoslav republics, at the end of 1980s Slovenia realised
more than half of its output through exports of goods and services: one
fifth through exports and one third through sales to the other republics.
Slovenia was a Yugoslav republic with the largest share of exports
to the hard-currency area. In 1988, Slovenia’s share in the Yugoslav
social product was 16.6% and accounted for 8.2% of the country’s pop-
ulation. Its share in exports to the hard-currency area was 28%. At that
time, the proportion of exported raw goods and goods with a low pro-
90
cessing level was small: more than three quarters of its exports con-
sisted of highly processed goods. The surplus of hard-currency exports
over imports was at the forefront of the economic policy. There were
three leading groups of companies in terms of the net surplus of hard-
currency exports over imports: wood-processing companies, aluminium
manufacturing and processing companies and Iskra affiliated group.
The Affiliated Companies of Slovenian Machine Building Industry
topped the list of clearing exporters to Russia and other countries.
Economic life in areas along the Western and Northern borders was
stimulated by frontier agreements (the Udine, Gorizia and Trieste
Agreements signed in 1954 and 1955). Permanent residents could
cross the border with a laissez-passer and were also entitled to duty-
free allowances. The latter were particularly important for exchange of
consumer goods, export of agricultural produce and import of house-
hold appliances. Alps-Adriatic Working Community was established
(1979) to coordinate transport links, environmental protection, promo-
tion of cultural contacts, and addressing economic and health issues.
Its activities covered Italian and Austrian borderland as well as Slovenia
and Croatia.
Slovenia had a number of pragmatic and energetic managers, loyal
to the companies they headed. Economic achievements and capable
businessmen received unquestioned support although there were
some political pressures and conflicts. Later on, political bodies con-
demned and tried to prevent political party officials from interfering with
operations of companies. The economic situation in 1970s and 1980s
can, therefore, not be compared to that in the first post-war years.
Many businessmen started their companies from scratch and spread
their operations and sales throughout Yugoslavia. Such new, typically
Yugoslav companies sprang up with establishments, warehouses and
manufacturing facilities in all parts of the country. Products made in
Slovenia enjoyed a high reputation in the Yugoslav market and gradu-
ally became established in the Western markets.
Some management teams developed international companies, ex-
panded their commercial and technical cooperation with their partners
in the West, carried out joint venture projects and obtained a number
of international certifications for their products. To quote some exam-
ples: in 1965, the company Sava from Kranj entered into an agreement
on commercial and technical cooperation with the Austrian tyre manu-
facturer Semperit which invested in the production of Sava-Semperit
radial tyres in 1972. In the same year, Tomos, Iskra Avtoelektrika and
91
Citroen created Cimos, a joint venture company, to produce Citroen
motor vehicles. Industrija motornih vozil of Novo Mesto, a manufacturer
of motor vehicles and holiday caravans, entered into a cooperation
agreement with the West German Auto Union (DKW) as early as 1950s
and subsequently manufactured a wide range of vans of its own make,
Austin passenger cars in cooperation with the British BLMC Group,
and, after 1973, with the French carmaker Renault. In 1972 the com-
pany opened a holiday caravan plant in Belgium and later also
campers.
At the beginning, many companies’ operations relied on imports of
spare parts from the West and their subsequent assembly. However,
new skills acquired, own inventions, and economic policy’s insistence
that a company is not just an importer but also a renowned exporter to
the West completely changed this situation.
Economic activity was accompanied by a variety of problems,
changes in regulations, inflation, crisis, economic rehabilitation, but the
obvious progress made by many companies over decades should not
be disregarded.
The prevailing view of senior positions was somewhat different at
that time. They could not expect to get rich. There were also exceptions,
but usually remained limited to more luxurious residential and holiday
homes. Wage ratios were entirely different: in 1991 the wage ratio was
slightly higher than 1:3. It means that the ratio between the average
gross wage of ten per cent of the work force with the lowest wages was
1:3 in comparison with the highest gross wage earned by people in the
top tenth of the work force. Moreover, Slovenian senior politicians did
not accumulate a wealth exceeding that of the middle classes. The un-
true data were later used for their discreditation.
From the perspective of comparisons between the republics, wages
in Slovenia were 15% to 23% above the Yugoslav average. However,
the actual differences were smaller, as consumer prices were higher in
Slovenia.
Some time in the late 1970s, transition to post-industrial activities
began. In economic policy, the development of new, particularly infor-
mation technology services, started to gain importance. The share of
the primary and partly also secondary sector activities declined and the
tertiary sector (transport, trade, tourism, housing and public utility ac-
tivities, business and technical services) started to gain ground. In
1960, tertiary sector accounted for 23% of Slovenia’s production and
rose to 39% by 1987.
92
One of the extraordinary achievements of post-war development was
the increase in the number of jobs. The number of employees increased
several times and reached more than 860,000 in 1987 when Slovenia’s
total population was about two million. The number of working women
recorded a rapid increase among employees: working women ac-
counted for 46% of the total work force at the end of 1980s. Slovenia
achieved this employment rate never again. In the period 1987-1996,
the number of employees in net terms declined by about 230,000. There
was a significant decline in manufacturing and technical profiles. After
the emigration wave that took place in Slovenia during the world depres-
sion in late 19th century and between the two world wars, this was the
biggest economic shock for the Slovenian population (in 2010, the num-
ber of the employees was 740,000).
Members of that generation stress the benefits of stable employment.
Moreover, they often emphasise that mutual relations in the workplace
were better. There was more cooperation and less competition among
employees. As the former managers recall in their memoirs the man-
agers’ guiding principle was responsibility toward workers. They believe
that this kind of social approach was well justified. The interests of the
individual in the company and the society as a whole were not yet
overemphasised to the detriment of the common, interpersonal interests.
Individualism could not prevail over humanism, i.e. work could not be de-
humanised to such an extent for the sake of profit. The slogan of the time
was ‘Man is our greatest wealth’. The rest of the world, particularly the
West, wrote about the Yugoslav system as socialism with a human face.
But one of the frequent criticisms of the economists in 1970s was
that a great number of people were on the payroll but did practically no
work and that it pointed to a latent unemployment. Another related crit-
icism was that the Yugoslav economic development was too extensive,
based on the expansion of production and increase in employment, and
too little on productivity and product quality. The data on investment
largely confirm this belief: the expansion of production was based
mainly on extensive investing activity. Prominent economists pointed
to the inadequate economic efficiency of the use of labour, capital and
land in Yugoslavia. Overstaffing was characteristic of administrative and
social services and the state administration. By this analysis the prin-
cipal reasons for structural imbalances were distorted manufacturers’
prices resulting from irrational economic policy. One of the criticisms
related to inadequate value added of products. This criticism was partly
justified and partly unrealistic. Economic closure of individual republics
93
and development of national economies was the subject of an exten-
sive debate among economists with many conflicting opinions regard-
ing the closure of national economies and restricting of investments to
their respective jurisdictions. After 1970, there was a growing tendency
toward increased volume of trade within each of the republics. How-
ever, the single Yugoslav market functioned well enough for the majority
of goods, as demonstrated by the opposing side. Actually, trade was
always active in Yugoslavia, as the leading businessmen always con-
sidered the possibilities of purchase and sale at the most favourable
prices on whole territory. From the perspective of that time, it is certainly
true that economically non-optimal economic projects, economic policy
deviations, and poor economic performance were subjected to general
criticism. The difference was primarily in the fact that some people en-
thusiastically set to work in order to improve the situation while others
remained indifferent. It is, however, interesting that those who did a
great deal of work and achieved unquestioned results later renounced
their past work and the entire socialist period and joined in disdainful
criticism.
In socialism, Slovenia set up social reciprocity and solidarity systems
in education, health care, social welfare and old-age insurance acces-
sible to the general public. The public benefited from the expansion of
free education which was incomparable to that enjoyed by the previous
generations. The number of educated people was on a rapid increase.
The improved living conditions were due to a great extent to the ac-
cess to health care for the majority of the population. A rough answer
to the question of progress is provided by the fact that there was one
physician per 500 of the population at the end of 1980s. In three
decades, the life expectancy increased by almost five years to 69 years
of age for men and by six years to 77 years of age for women. Accord-
ing to a research conducted by the UN, Slovenia ranks 29th in the world
in terms of the human development index (2010). It is ranked so high
owing to the still wide access to health care services to the majority of
its population; in terms of the education level and the growing differ-
ences in income it would be ranked much lower. During the Kingdom
of Yugoslavia, the number of pension recipients was minimal. The sys-
tem of old-age, disability and survivor’s pensions was operational al-
ready in mid-1950s and somewhat later also farmers got legal right to
old-age insurance.
The living conditions of the population also improved as a result of
an extensive housing construction after World War II. Housing became
94
accessible to the broadest range of people. Virtually all dwelling units
had electricity and running water. Out of a total of 650,000 dwelling
units according to the 1991 census, 480,000 were built after 1946. This
fact is somewhat distorted, as demolitions included for the most part
older dwelling units.
One of the achievements that were important for the everyday lives
of the people was safety: there was less economic crime, violence and
use of narcotics. It may be concluded that the socialist regime success-
fully coped with these phenomena and combated extremism. It pro-
vided security; moreover, one of the benefits to the people was the
safety of travel throughout the nation’s territory. This security assess-
ment does not apply to the persons rated as enemies of the regime, to
which the State Security Service applied the provisions of Article 133
of the Criminal Code or the Offences against Public Order and Peace
Act and methods of political pressure and intimidation. A human rights
movement rose against the use of these methods particularly in Slove-
nia.
The leading socialist bodies mainly successfully tackled all forms of
extremism within their ranks, nationalists and authoritarians in the lead-
ing circles and proceeded against careerism. Re-election was intro-
duced for persons elected in a wide range of public offices and com-
pany managers. For some positions, re-election was forbidden. Political
and legislative activities followed in response to broader political prob-
lems. For example, when matters began to be resolved through con-
nections in the procurement and supply of cars, allocation of rental flats
(which would nowadays be called lobbying), there were established
transparent orders of precedence and waiting list controls.
In 1970s there was a campaign against what was known as ‘alien-
ated centres of economic power’. At that time there already existed
large companies, centres of economic decision-making, whose eco-
nomic policy became remote from the demands of the employees and
the surroundings. The purpose of these activities was to find the way
how to preserve the workers’ influence on the management of the so-
cially-owned capital, in particular, how to preserve the dialogue between
the workers and the management and to prevent the management of
large companies from becoming alienated from the people. A series of
activities and amendments to regulations was intended for restricting
the number of resales of one and the same goods, i.e. commercial bro-
kerage. Their purpose was to ensure an appropriate share of the price
of goods to agricultural and industrial producers and to protect the in-
95
terests of consumers. Arrangements for limiting trade margins had a
similar purpose. These activities were mainly successful and were
among achievements of socialism. There were also many reorganisa-
tions and reforms (of state administration, school and banking system),
which entailed a change in the name of institutions, educational pro-
grammes, but without any substantive improvements.
IV.
The post-war period was characterised by frequent critical discus-
sions and expert contributions to the debate about whether industrial
development was promoted to the detriment of agriculture or whether
electricity industry maintained unprofitable production through low
prices, discussions about what benefit other branches of the economy
had from tourism and about the poor participation of tourism in the dis-
tribution of benefits. Moreover, it was characterised by popular discon-
tent: considerably higher investment in other areas while the local com-
munity lagged behind. The discussions revolved around the financial
position of the federal units and criticisms that the Yugoslav economic
and price policies failed to consider that the financial position of a par-
ticular republic had deteriorated.
For a number of years, economic policy managed to coordinate the
various interests and resist excessive localism and national pressures
and thus maintained a positive attitude to the achievement of develop-
ment objectives. Later it yielded to the pressure, which was reflected
in higher inflation.
The growing number of disputes in the coordination of economic pol-
icy was seriously highlighted by the notorious motorway construction
affair in Slovenia in late 1960s and ‘Maspok’ (Mass Movement) in Croa-
tia in 1971. The situation was further aggravated by the two oil price
shocks (1973/4 and 1979) and economic stagnation in the West that
was closely associated with the oil crisis. In order to surmount these
difficulties, Yugoslavia amended its constitution and passed a consti-
tutional act, which were several years later incorporated in the new con-
stitution of 1974. The new constitution was instrumental in achieving a
new political and economic consensus. An important novel element of
the new constitution was the definition of the roles of the republics as
states in their own right. The constitution established a principle that
the nations in the federal republics and provinces decided alone on
their work, their economic results and natural resources. Their deci-
96
sions should be based on mutual cooperation, by taking into account
the equal standing of other nations and mutual assistance. One could
say that the constitution formalised the already achieved independence
of the republics and two autonomous provinces in practice. It set up
new mechanisms for coordinating economic interests between the re-
publics through inter-republican committees and legislative powers of
the Chambers of Republics and Autonomous Provinces of the Yugoslav
federal parliament. The duties of the federation were considerably re-
stricted and so was the federal budget: quota contributions from the re-
publics and autonomous provinces were introduced as a budgetary
source. Customs duties, sales tax and fees remained the primary fed-
eral budget income based on the guidelines and approval by the Cham-
ber of Republics and Autonomous Provinces. The monetary policy re-
mained the responsibility of the federation while the main annual
objectives were set by the Chamber of Republics and Autonomous
Provinces.
Another novel element in the constitution was a continued delegation
of economic and political rights and duties to employees. These
changes strengthened the autonomy of economic operators and high-
lighted the importance of market pricing. The notion of the single Yu-
goslav market was redefined from legal perspective. However, dis-
agreement continued and, several years later, the Prices Act clearly
defined commodity production and the functioning of the market as the
basis of pricing. From legal aspect, it tried to prevent arbitrary negation
of the market through government action and non-observance of prices
set on international markets. One part of the prices was thus shaped
by supply and demand, and the other part remained controlled and sub-
ject to state regulations.
Several years earlier, constitutional amendments brought about an
essential change regarding capital in order to define capital more clearly
as a socially-owned (and at the same time also individual) form of prop-
erty and distinguish it from capitalist and state property. And on the
other hand to consider it as an economic factor having its role and price
in the production process. The main purpose was to encourage the
movement of capital. The producers thus invested in the expansion of
the production of intermediate goods and raw materials. Producers-im-
porters invested their capital in tourist organisations with a view to earn-
ing hard currency, etc.
Real rates of interest were one of the key aspects of capital valuation.
After years of effort, they were not introduced in Yugoslavia until mid-
Bayerische j 97
StaatsbibUot’nek j
München
1980s; their introduction was also one of the requirements of the Inter-
national Monetary Fund. The situation was similar with the adoption of
an economically more realistic criterion for foreign trade transactions,
i.e. the exchange rate for the dinar. There was an ongoing debate (par-
ticularly between Serbia on one side and Croatia and Slovenia on the
other side) on a new exchange rate policy for the dinar and on how
much foreign currency each party was entitled from hard-currency
transactions. The new Foreign Exchange Act adopted in mid-1980s
was successful in enacting the right to hard currency for all companies
in the chain, not only for the ultimate exporter. This means that export
of bovine animals from Vojvodina through a Slovenian exporter was
recorded in the relevant part as export carried out by the producer from
Vojvodina.
However the coordination of the national economic policy in the pur-
suit of the interest rate and exchange rate policies was not successful.
Unrealistic exchange rates thus encouraged domestic borrowing and
the inadequate exchange rate the borrowing abroad. At times the two
policies even contradicted each other.
Regarding capital and asset management (buildings, factory equip-
ment, financial assets of enterprises, bank capital, investments in other
companies), constitutional amendments bestowed rights and duties on
workers and their working collectives. The amended constitution estab-
lished legal entitlements between individual workers and capital and
between individual workers and other employees within the same work-
ing team. This is why these assets were designated as ‘past labour’ as
distinguished from direct, everyday ‘live labour’ of employees. Employ-
ees were thus entitled to a part of their wages derived from their ‘live
labour’ and a part derived from their ‘past labour’, depending on their
performance. This completed and supplemented the legal and eco-
nomic substance of socially-owned property that originated at the turn
of the 1950s. It was based on the management rights of individuals co-
operating with other working people who establish mutual economic
links and associate ‘live’ and ‘past’ labour in various forms of economic
activities. On this basis the state has certain powers on the municipal,
republic and federal levels, such as in the implementation of the eco-
nomic policy, coordination of planning, supervision, etc. In this way, due
to the priority given to the payment of wages and contributions and con-
trol over payments, all payment transactions between companies and
other users in Yugoslavia was carried out through a single organisation,
i.e. the Public Auditor’s Office.
98
A retrospective look at the changes in the country’s economic setup
shows the following: Working collectives gained management rights
over the entire economic assets departing from the idea of self-man-
agement as economic, not only political rights of the people. Naturally,
managment and experts has an important role, but were obliged to get
approval on main decisions. The aim was to integrate work and assets
in the hands of the working people, give them the fundamental rights
and duties in terms of both work and capital. On the other hand, the
role of the leading socialist political forces - in the light of constant
struggle of political forces for influence on society - was to prevent the
elites from usurping the power and the efforts of the working population.
By taking this into account, socio-political chambers were set up in the
assembly of each republic, with their deputies coming from the League
of Communists, the Socialist Alliance, the Youth League, etc., as a
house of representatives in order to ensure political stability and defend
the role of the working people. The constitution also guaranteed legal
protection to private property in privately-owned small industry which
flourished. In 1979, craftsmen established, with government support, a
Federation of Independent Craftsmen as their professional organisation
that was several years later renamed Chamber of Craft and Small Busi-
ness of Slovenia. The Federation provided professional assistance to
craftsmen and advocated their interests and the protection of private
property.
However life also took routes other than those regulated by the con-
stitution, by taking into account the various possibilities and aspirations
of the people and reflecting a host of activities carried out by people
and organisations. The economic system serves as the basis whereas
the history of the economy is written by the masses and shows our
good and less good deeds.
Constitutional amendments enabled Slovenia’s government to pur-
sue an effective economic policy all the way into the 1980s. The gov-
ernment was predominantly pragmatic: the importance was on resolv-
ing problems, achieving good performance results; the work regularly
extended late into the night.
There were regular elections of new prime ministers and government
members. The government which was in power in late 1960s insisted
on financial restrictions and proposed to the Assembly to vote on this
issue and resigned after its proposals had not been accepted. In an-
other case, the government’s term was prematurely terminated due to
non-achievement of the planned results and inadequate coordination
99
of the government team. Activities of the Slovenian government re-
sulted in a better supply of food and petroleum in the republic than else-
where in the country, as storage facilities for commodity reserves had
been built during several years. A notable achievement of the 1980s
was a development strategy (plan 1986-1990) that defined scientific
and technological advancement as a key production factor. The objec-
tive was to make Slovenia an inovative society. One of the concrete
programmes was to employ 2000 young researchers in scientific insti-
tutions and then gradually transfer them to enterprises.
However, in 1980s, economic growth in terms of the social product
was minimal. The structure of Slovenian exports and imports was al-
ready technologically more advanced. Moreover, Slovenia had an in-
ternationally open economy: the sum of its total exports and imports of
goods and services considerably exceeded its annual social gross
product. Nevertheless, a new investment cycle, the restructuring of in-
dustry, a further expansion of exports and the building of motorways
and other infrastructure were urgent. Manufacturing already began to
be transferred to other parts of Yugoslavia. Slovenia’s productivity per
employee was one-fourth higher than the country’s average, but its
work places were less well equipped and the rate of deterioration of
fixed assets was higher.
V.
For a number of reasons, the socialist period came to an end. Con-
sidered from a broader perspective, the political leadership headed by
Tito deserves major credit for having ensured 45 years of life in peace.
It responded prudently to the economic development of the society and
needs of the people for a number of years by adopting standpoints on
crucial questions like relations among nations, education, policy in agri-
culture, the rule of law, etc., adopting the 1946 Constitution, the 1953
Constitutional Act, the 1963 Constitution, the 1966 Brioni plenary meet-
ing of the political leadership, the 1974 Constitution, etc. Yugoslavia
evolved from a backward country into a modern state. A major achieve-
ment in its efforts to preserve its independence and its own socialist
way of development was its firm foreign policy that withstood both
Russian and American pressure. It provided the Yugoslav citizens with
a number of useful and practical benefits, such as the passport that fa-
cilitated visa-free travel to a number of countries around the world. Si-
multaneously, Yugoslavia’s foreign policy strongly promoted the expan-
sion of the country’s international economic cooperation.
100
However, the political situation in Yugoslavia and in the rest of the
world changed drastically in the last decade of the country’s existence.
The ‘partisan’ generation that rose against the occupying forces during
the war, transformed the society and paved the way to post-war pros-
perity was retiring from active involvement in running the country. With
their departure, the cohesive core of the society started to crumble. Al-
though the role of some exceptional personalities should not be under-
estimated, Yugoslavia was not held together by a single person but by
a mass of people. It was based on many longstanding family, employ-
ment, economic, cultural and security ties. However, the strength of the
former cohesive ties started to decline, looking also from the perspec-
tives of new generations.
Economically, Yugoslavia in many ways preceded the current devel-
opment efforts that became established as human development under
the auspices of the United Nations. Similar thoughts have become char-
acteristic of some developing countries across the world. This new ori-
entation does not set the domestic product growth as an objective but
what economic, education and health care policy can do for the individ-
ual and the individual’s development potential. The former Yugoslav slo-
gan ‘People are our greatest treasure’ continues to apply at present.
The introductory statement to the UN Human Development Report of
1990 is “People are the real wealth of a nation” (the situation is changing
but there is still a long way to go before the objective is achieved). Slove-
nia eradicated poverty, which, unlike now, was not considered to be one
of the fundamental human rights at that time. Economic performance of
that period was significant, including in terms of international compar-
isons. This is also corroborated by a comprehensive study of 25 coun-
tries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and other former Yugoslav
republics, the Baltic States ... Armenia ... Georgia, up to Tadzhikistan)
which was carried out during the transition period. This study measured
the achieved level of development in 1989 on the basis of 12 indicators,
i.e. the initial, starting level of development achieved before the transition
period. A study carried out by Falcetti et al. showed that in that year
Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary had the best starting base,
i.e. topped the list in terms of the achieved development level.
The development in that period cannot be understood without the pre-
dominating aspirations of the generations of the time, i.e. Slovenia’s ef-
forts to overcome its economic backwardness and efforts of people to
improve their economic situation, to overcome poverty and improve their
living standard. These were the priorities of those generations. New im-
101
petus was given to aspirations to eliminate backwardness of thought,
religious and other beliefs that represented a real obstacle to economic
progress. The prevailing opinion was that the former inequalities in terms
of wealth and revenue should be reduced and that women should be
given equal roles. Many of these goals were actually achieved. In many
aspects, all these efforts represented a challenge, a people’s reaction
to the pre-war social conditions and disappointments. However, towards
the end of the former Yugoslavia, there was a lack of political power to
control inflation and its main causes. Its causes included investments
derived from not yet realised income, i.e. on account of the expected in-
come of a company. In some years, one half of the funds for investment
were covered by foreign and domestic borrowing. Simultaneously, con-
stant price increases and livelihood problems, such as petrol rationing
and car use restrictions at the beginning of the 1980s, triggered a grow-
ing discontent among the people. In 80s there was also a growing dis-
satisfaction about uncontolled, high inflation.
At that time, on national level, the development of the Yugoslav mar-
ket system came to a standstill. However, positive achievements in-
cluded the fact that, after 1974, the federal budget was a relatively
minor element of the country’s social product. Secondly, the Yugoslav
politics in mid-1980s was capable to introduce the real interest rates,
wich was also one of the requirements of the International Monetary
Fund. Thirdly, Yugoslavia negotiated an agreement on the rescheduling
its external hard currency debt with its creditor countries and banks in
the West. There has been a lot of exaggeration about Yugoslavia’s
overindebtedness, as the situation was not a stalemate. As a matter of
fact, all foreign creditors favoured an agreement and, compared to the
other countries that had rescheduled their debts, the interest rate and
other costs were beyond no doubt favourable. Yugoslavia signed
agreements with the Paris Club countries and banks in New York to
gradually repay its debts; Norway was the only country to write off Yu-
goslavia’s debt in full. In 1989, Yugoslavia’s total foreign debt was 19.65
billon US dollars. In accordance with the indebtedness criteria adopted
by World Bank in the second half of 1980s, the Yugoslav debt never
reached a high level, or even a critical one.
The situation with other market reforms was different. The introduc-
tion of the convertible dinar in 1989/90 by Ante Markovic’s government,
the tightening of the monetary policy, market-oriented constitutional
amendments which, among other things, facilitated foreign investment
in the economy, a new companies act were the belated measures
102
whose implementation lacked sufficient political support. The aforemen-
tioned regulations more or less meant the transition to the capitalist
market economy. However, the core of the disputes and adamant op-
position was even before that focused on financial consolidation, the
issues of controlling inflation, the search for a solution to cure the sick
part of the economy and to restrict the inflationary monetary policy.
Moreover, also on how to prevent the companies from distributing the
income that was invoiced but not yet paid. This test had not been suc-
cessful before that with regard to the proposed financial consolidation
measures adopted by the government headed by Milka Planinc in Feb-
ruary 1984. At that time, economic issues were overwhelmed by dis-
putes and remained unresolved. The conflicts were marked by nation-
alism and different political views became widespread.
Yugoslavia began to disintegrate and broke up after the fall of the
Berlin Wall in 1989, when comprehensive social changes swept across
all Eastern Europe and other countries.
All this does not diminish Slovenia’s achievements, including its fail-
ures that could have been avoided and the inevitable ones. The ‘parti-
san’ generations deserve great credit for this success. First, these gen-
erations undoubtedly contributed to the expansion (by 28%) of the
national territory that was under foreign occupation but inhabited by
Slovenians. Moreover, the socialist economic system Improved peo-
ple’s living conditions. Public opinion polls conducted for many years
have shown that the majority of the people considered that they had
lived better in mid-1980s than a decade later. In their view, employment
opportunities, conditions for raising children, housing affordability and
respect for work considerably deteriorated and there was no improve-
ment in the rule of law. At the same time, they highlighted a slight im-
provement in democratic decision-making. Later on, efforts were made
to dismiss these views as being nostalgic although there are no data
to confirm it. Professor Ivo Lavrac made an expert comparison between
the Slovenian and the Austrian gross domestic product: according to
his calculation, Slovenia’s gross domestic product per capita in terms
of purchasing power parity was in 1985 approximately 8,000 US dollars
(whose worth was much higher at that time). It was 73% of the value of
the Austrian gross domestic product per capita and approximately level
with that of Spain. The value of the Yugoslav gross domestic product
per capita was 44% of the Austrian one. A comparison made for 2006,
i.e. before the onset of the crisis, shows a slight increase in Slovenia’s
lag behind Austria and Spain.
103
* * *
After World War I (the 1921 census) Slovenia covered an area of
15,809 sq. km and had a population of 1,055,000. In the next ten years,
its population grew to 1,144,000 people. After the annexation of the oc-
cupied territories of Primorsko and the Adriatic coastal area with the
city of Koper, its territory increased to the present 20,256 sq. km and
its population rose from 1,443,000 to 2,000,000 from 1948 to 1991. In
1935, Slovenia’s capital city of Ljubljana had a population of 85,000,
almost 100,000 in 1948 and 270,000 according to the 2001 census.
On its breakup in 1991, the Socialist Federative Republic of Yu-
goslavia had an area of 256,000 sq. km and a population of 24 million.
In the period 1947-1990, its social product increased in real terms by
6.8 times or by 4.5% on an annual basis. The differences in economic
development between the republics and the two autonomous provinces
partly increased in the post-war period (due to the differences in the ef-
ficiency of use of fixed funds, differences in natural increase of popula-
tion, etc.). In 1989, individual republics had the following level of the
social product per capita according to the Yugoslav average:
Yugo- slav՛! ja BiH Monte- negro Cro- atia Ko- sovo Mace- donia Slove- nia Serbia- proper Vojvo- dina
100 66 73 129 26 64 216 94 127
104
KAZALO
Kazalo.......................................................... 9
Predgovor prof. J. Mencinger................................... 11
Predgovor prof. B. Repe........................................ 13
Uvodne ugotovitve.............................................. 16
Industrializacija.............................................. 19
Širitev izvoznega gospodarstva................................. 32
Zaposlovanje, šolstvo, zdravstvo, znanost ..................... 47
Uspehi, a tudi naraščanje težav................................ 54
Sklepne misli.................................................. 72
Overview: Slovenia’s economy 1945-90 including
some features on Yugoslavia................................... 78
Priloga....................................................... 105
Literatura in viri ........................................... 136
|
| any_adam_object | 1 |
| author | Klemenčič, Vlado |
| author_facet | Klemenčič, Vlado |
| author_role | aut |
| author_sort | Klemenčič, Vlado |
| author_variant | v k vk |
| building | Verbundindex |
| bvnumber | BV041458326 |
| classification_rvk | QF 649 |
| ctrlnum | (OCoLC)919442905 (DE-599)BVBBV041458326 |
| discipline | Wirtschaftswissenschaften |
| era | Geschichte 1945-1990 gnd |
| era_facet | Geschichte 1945-1990 |
| format | Book |
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| geographic | Slowenien (DE-588)4055302-4 gnd |
| geographic_facet | Slowenien |
| id | DE-604.BV041458326 |
| illustrated | Illustrated |
| indexdate | 2024-07-10T00:57:11Z |
| institution | BVB |
| isbn | 9789616798365 |
| language | Slovenian English |
| oai_aleph_id | oai:aleph.bib-bvb.de:BVB01-026904733 |
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| physical | 139 S. Ill. 24 cm |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publishDateSearch | 2013 |
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| publisher | Studia Humanitatis |
| record_format | marc |
| spelling | Klemenčič, Vlado Verfasser aut Gospodarjenje v socializmu oris gospodarske zgodovine Slovenije 1945 - 1990 Vlado Klemenčič Overview of Slovenia's economy 1945 - 1990 Ljubljana Studia Humanitatis 2013 139 S. Ill. 24 cm txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Enth. "Overview of Slovenia's economy 1945-1990" in engl. Sprache Bibliografija: str. 136-139 Geschichte 1945-1990 gnd rswk-swf Gospodarstvo / Slovenija / 1945-1990 Ekonomska politika / Slovenija / 1945-1990 Wirtschaft (DE-588)4066399-1 gnd rswk-swf Sozialistische Wirtschaftsführung (DE-588)4121690-8 gnd rswk-swf Wirtschaftspolitik (DE-588)4066493-4 gnd rswk-swf Slowenien (DE-588)4055302-4 gnd rswk-swf Slowenien (DE-588)4055302-4 g Sozialistische Wirtschaftsführung (DE-588)4121690-8 s Geschichte 1945-1990 z DE-604 Wirtschaft (DE-588)4066399-1 s Wirtschaftspolitik (DE-588)4066493-4 s Digitalisierung BSB Muenchen 19 - ADAM Catalogue Enrichment application/pdf http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=026904733&sequence=000003&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA Abstract Digitalisierung BSB Muenchen 19 - ADAM Catalogue Enrichment application/pdf http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=026904733&sequence=000004&line_number=0002&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA Inhaltsverzeichnis |
| spellingShingle | Klemenčič, Vlado Gospodarjenje v socializmu oris gospodarske zgodovine Slovenije 1945 - 1990 Gospodarstvo / Slovenija / 1945-1990 Ekonomska politika / Slovenija / 1945-1990 Wirtschaft (DE-588)4066399-1 gnd Sozialistische Wirtschaftsführung (DE-588)4121690-8 gnd Wirtschaftspolitik (DE-588)4066493-4 gnd |
| subject_GND | (DE-588)4066399-1 (DE-588)4121690-8 (DE-588)4066493-4 (DE-588)4055302-4 |
| title | Gospodarjenje v socializmu oris gospodarske zgodovine Slovenije 1945 - 1990 |
| title_alt | Overview of Slovenia's economy 1945 - 1990 |
| title_auth | Gospodarjenje v socializmu oris gospodarske zgodovine Slovenije 1945 - 1990 |
| title_exact_search | Gospodarjenje v socializmu oris gospodarske zgodovine Slovenije 1945 - 1990 |
| title_full | Gospodarjenje v socializmu oris gospodarske zgodovine Slovenije 1945 - 1990 Vlado Klemenčič |
| title_fullStr | Gospodarjenje v socializmu oris gospodarske zgodovine Slovenije 1945 - 1990 Vlado Klemenčič |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gospodarjenje v socializmu oris gospodarske zgodovine Slovenije 1945 - 1990 Vlado Klemenčič |
| title_short | Gospodarjenje v socializmu |
| title_sort | gospodarjenje v socializmu oris gospodarske zgodovine slovenije 1945 1990 |
| title_sub | oris gospodarske zgodovine Slovenije 1945 - 1990 |
| topic | Gospodarstvo / Slovenija / 1945-1990 Ekonomska politika / Slovenija / 1945-1990 Wirtschaft (DE-588)4066399-1 gnd Sozialistische Wirtschaftsführung (DE-588)4121690-8 gnd Wirtschaftspolitik (DE-588)4066493-4 gnd |
| topic_facet | Gospodarstvo / Slovenija / 1945-1990 Ekonomska politika / Slovenija / 1945-1990 Wirtschaft Sozialistische Wirtschaftsführung Wirtschaftspolitik Slowenien |
| url | http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=026904733&sequence=000003&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=026904733&sequence=000004&line_number=0002&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA |
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