Belgrade 1969-1972. The uncertainties and hardships of the Yugoslav experiment in the eyes of a newly graduated Italian scholarship holder

Abstract

Half a century ago, the author of this paper, a recent graduate, received an exchange scholarship from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a research visit to Belgrade on the subject of self-management and the theory of the state. At that time, the central, and by no means merely theoretical, problem of Yugoslavian society was how to respond to the impact of the market on the system of self-management. In addition to the production structure, this question also affected the relations between the republics and the political centre of the state. Two serious crises were to be decided by the decisive intervention of the charismatic leader, who put an authoritarian model from another era back into force. The young scholar observed and did not understand much, but in return became familiar with a lively and hospitable city. Critical reflections would come in the years to follow.