Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia was a historic kingdom and federated republic that has since devolved into separate republics: Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Kosovo.
History
Yugoslavia emerged from pan-Slavic nationalism within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
During the World War 1 peace negotiations, nationalists declared a State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The Treaty of Trianon wrapped them into the Kingdom of Serbia to form a new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The official name became Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929.
On March 27th, 1941, King Peter II overthrew the Axis-aligned regency of Paul. Germany invaded in retaliation. Many border lands were seize by the Axis powers. The remainder was partitioned into:
the Italian governorate of Montenegro, an Italian puppet;
the Independent State of Croatia, fascist government led by Pavelić; and
the Government of National Salvation in Serbia, a German puppet.
There were two significant resistance groups within Yugoslavia:
Tito led the communist National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia or Yugoslav Partisans
Mihailović led the royalist Chetniks
- they eventually shifted towards collaboration with the Axis
After the war, Tito led the new Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. With the 1963 constitution, the name officially changed to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Tito died on May 4, 1980. The chair of the presidency council began to rotate among members, and no singular statesman ever achieved a similar degree of power.
When Mesić became chair, he ceased to attend meetings. The members from Slovenia and Macedonia similarly abandoned government, leaving just Milošević and his supporters. This effectively ended the executive power of Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslav Wars proceeded from here.
Structure
Following World War 2, Yugoslavia was a confederation of republics and autonomous provinces. This federated state of nations would remain, which each electing their own assemblies and sending their own representatives to the federal government.
Executive
Tito was the general secretary of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and was the effective head of state.
In 1963, a new constitution was written which established a presidency council. The council included three members from each republic, two members from each autonomous province, and Tito as party leader. (Total of 23 members.) He chaired the presidency permanently.
In 1974, this was reduced to one member from each republic and autonomous province, plus Tito, for a total of 9 members.
Following Tito's death, the permanent seat and permanent chair positions were not replaced. The council began to rotate the chair every 6 months.
Legislature
The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia had a bicameral federal parliament called the National Assembly, with a Federal Council and a Council of Peoples.
In 1953, the constitution was amended to reorganize the legislature into the Federal People's Assembly, with a Federal Council and the Council of Producers.
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had a pentacameral federal parliament called the Federal Assembly. The chambers were:
- Federal Council
- four bureaucratic chambers
- Economic Council
- Educational-Cultural Council
- Social-Health Council
- Organization-Political Council
In 1967, the Council of Nations was extricated from the Federal Council to be the sixth chamber. One year later, the Federal Council was merged into the Council of Nations.
Political Parties
Under the kingdom of Yugoslavia, there was limited competition of political parties. In particular, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia was banned.
Following World War 2, Yugoslavia was a single-party state under the aforementioned League of Communists of Yugoslavia. The party was led by a pair of political secretaries and organizational secretaries until 1936, when the two were consolidated into the position of general secretary.
In 1990, the delegations from Slovenia and Croatia walked out of the party convention. (Note the proximity to Croatia abandoning the presidency council.) The national republics then began to develop multi-party systems, and organized elections for later that year.