Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-lrf7s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-30T22:43:19.903Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - The 1960s – a decade of reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2010

Get access

Summary

In the early 1960s Yugoslavia was faced with the consequences of the unbalanced economic growth of the previous decade. The crisis in the overheated economy which caused the abandonment in 1962 of the third Five Year Plan compelled the planners to make a fundamental reassessment of the situation. A resolution of the LCY in 1962 pointed to the direction which the new course would take. It called for improvements in productivity to enable Yugoslavia to enter into free competition in world markets, and for the use of market forces as the yardstick with which to measure economic performance. The phrase ‘entering the international division of labour’ was used to describe this process. It implied the removal of the protective barriers behind which the spectacular growth of the 1950s had been achieved, and the withdrawal of the state from interference in the economy through subsidies, price fixing and cheap credit. At home, it was hoped that competition among autonomous worker-managed enterprises would act as a spur to greater efficiency and would shake out surplus labour, which was being hoarded because it was politically easier to keep semi-skilled and unskilled workers on the payroll in comparative idleness than to make them redundant.

The first steps towards ‘market socialism’ had been taken during a limited economic reform in 1961, but they were too piecemeal and uncoordinated to be successful. In fact, they made the position worse. The abolition of income controls led to inflationary wage payments. The liberalisation of foreign trade led to an increase in imports, but as Yugoslav industry was not able to secure a corresponding increase in export earnings, the balance-of-payments position worsened.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×