|
|
Yugoslavia: Credit Where Credit Is Due
| Article
# : |
10865 |
|
|
Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
|
| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1986 |
2,282 Words |
| Author
: |
Scott B. MacDonald
|
While Poland has consistently had problems in complying with its debt adjustment programs and Romania has taken draconian austerity measures; one nation in Eastern Europe has managed to meet its international repayment commitments while not radically depreciating its standard of living. That nation is Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia has suffered through a lengthy economic recession in the 1980s, per-capita income has declined moderately, and the government has been forced to reassess its financial policies. With an external debt of $21 billion, there has been some cause for concern among the nation's 23 million people. Despite those factors, the Yugoslav economy, after years of contraction and stagnation, appears poised to expand once again. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said for many other debtor nations such as Poland, Mexico, and the Philippines.
There can be no understanding of the present or the future without an understanding of the past, especially in the case of Yugoslavia's external debt.
As a nation Yugoslavia is relatively new, officially formed on December 1, 1918, from the kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro and parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Turkish Empire.
An amalgamation of five major Slav groups and seventeen additional minorities, the Yugoslav "nation" was an arena of often-conflicting ethnic groups. Political violence ultimately culminated in the assassination of the nation's first monarch, King Alexander, in 1934. Under a new and younger king, the monarchy sought to hold the country together until the Second World War, when Yugoslavia was invaded by the Germans, Italians, and their allies.
After World War II and a bitter civil war, communist partisan forces, under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, emerged victorious to shape a new Yugoslavia. Both wars left the nation with an estimated two million dead and an economy in shambles.
Under Tito, a Soviet-style constitution was adopted on January 31, 1946, and a "people's republic" was proclaimed. Despite an initial identification with the new order created by the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, Tito quickly became disenchanted with Joseph Stalin's attempts to intervene in Yugoslav affairs. Relations between Belgrade and Moscow became strained, and in 1948 Yugoslavia broke with the Eastern bloc.
The movement away from the Soviet camp was eased by the absence of a red army of occupation due to the Yugoslavs' ability to liberate themselves during the war. Furthermore, some $2.9 billion in economic and military assistance from the United States and additional aid from Western Europe made the transition easier.
Collective consciousness
The shift in international allegiances was marked by a change in economic policies: in general, centralized planning was dropped for a decentralized, market-oriented model, and specifically, workers' management was introduced in industry in 1950, collectivization in the countryside was abandoned in 1953, and from 1949 to 1953 there was a redirection of Yugoslav trade toward the
...
Read Full Article
|
|
