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Yugoslavia The Early Post-Tito Years
As expected, Tito's death began a new era in Yugoslav
politics, but many of the trends of the 1970s continued. Milka
Planinc of Croatia was elected prime minister in 1982, amid
pledges from all quarters to continue Tito's policies. Much
rhetoric proclaimed the need for drastic reform, but formidable
bureaucratic inertia always blunted the impetus for change. The
divisive issues that Tito had held in check were even more
pronounced after his death, and the thoroughly divided power
structure that succeeded him could manage only superficially the
major problems that escalated through the decade.
Eight amendments were added to the Constitution in 1981.
Their main purpose was to consolidate the elements of the
rotational government that had been developed at various times in
preceding years. Significantly, for the first time in a Yugoslav
constitution, the term "collective body" was now used in
reference to leadership policy. One 1981 amendment eliminated
Tito's office of president for life of the republic, the
functions of which devolved to the nine-member rotating State
Presidency.
The Twelfth Party Congress of 1982, the first without Tito,
was expected to lay new political ground and provide strong
direction. But all progress was blocked by the familiar regional
stalemate between the centralizers and the decentralizers within
the party. With no strong figure to act as ultimate arbiter, the
Twelfth Congress began a new stage of strident, fruitless debate
in the LCY. Significantly, the centralizers now based their
position not on the Leninist idea of the party as national
vanguard, but on the pragmatic argument that the country would
collapse economically without strong, central leadership.
Throughout the 1980s, Serbia was the foremost exponent of
stronger federal government while Slovenia and Croatia were the
foremost exponents of regional autonomy. With some variation, the
same division defined national debate on many other issues.
Data as of December 1990
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