The Third Way: The Experiment of Workers’ Self-Management in Socialist Yugoslavia

Abstract

The paper deals with the socio-political context in Yugoslavia after the decisive split with USSR in 1948. The main focus is on the theoretical concept of workers’ self-management, its development in four different phases and the way it was implemented in Yugoslav society. The analysis stresses the emancipatory potential of the ideas behind the social model of self-management but also presents the arguments for the reasons for its failure and demise. Particular emphasis is put on the reflections of French sociologist and urbanist Henri Lefebvre on the potential of the Yugoslav model of socialism to produce the concept for the New Urban and new socialist city, which was evidenced by his critical reflections on the concept of building New Belgrade. In the final chapters, the post-Yugoslav context and dissolution of Yugoslavia is put in focus. The conclusion revisits the legacy of the concept of self-management and its potential for revisiting it in different historical contexts based on the models of self-organization.