The rise of a business class managerial elites in Yugoslavia,1963-1978

Abstract

The thesis investigates an emergence of a business world in Yugoslavia in the midst of communists’ endeavour to develop a socialist society and a workers’ state. Its central focus narrows down on the general directors in charge of the large industrial enterprises who in the period of liberalising reforms between the 1960s and 1970s became both independent and powerful enough to attract the interest of the Party leaders. The thesis provides the answer to the question of how Yugoslavia shaped its business environment and, more importantly, how the changes of the socio-economic setting allowed general managers to become relevant actors and even considered a homogenous group in both the public and political discourse. By delving into economic, ideological, socio-political, and legal domains of Yugoslavia’s life, the thesis identifies the first half of the 1960s as the critical moment for the emancipation of the managerial elite. It explores how the widespread modernisation campaign, at the same time, accelerated the expansion of the Yugoslav economic potentials and reproduced systemic contradictions that in turn created the demand for new forms of company leaders. Since large industrial companies also appeared in this same period, the thesis explores their beginnings in relation to the appearance of the new generation of managers. In its final part the thesis establishes the definition of large production companies in the 1960s and 1970s Yugoslavia and builds a collective profile of their general directors. In this sense, the typology of directors and the statistical analysis of their profiles, as well as their short professional histories, are at the heart of the thesis, giving a fresh understanding of their role in the Yugoslav political and business world.