396 The Later Years
according to their interests. The policy should not meddle in self-management
but should only plan the socioeconomic system and how it should run. To
include “the basic organizations of associated labor” in the political structure as
much as possible, Kardelj thought it necessary to replace traditional parliamen-
tary representation with delegates who would fulfill a role that did not exist
in any other part of the world—they would not be professional politicians but
rather representatives of whatever collective they worked in. He imagined a
complex structure of councils and assemblies in factories and enterprises, in
local and municipal communities, and in the autonomous provinces and repub-
lics, up to the federal level. Every “basic organization of associated labor” should
elect a delegation that was tasked with sending a “corporative delegate” to the
municipal, republican, or federal assembly. These delegates would maintain their
normal work obligations in order not to lose touch with their constituencies.
In this way, a direct democracy would be created, closely linked to the self-
managed organizations that could not be exploited by external forces interested
in monopolizing power. This new social structure would guarantee the work-
ing people the immediate realization of their political and economic interests,
and the ability to fully control the instruments and results of their labor.^19 This
was the implementation of an old dream of Kardelj’s: a “non-party democracy
able to guarantee incomparably more freedom than that guaranteed by the
multiparty system.” In reality, he had created a frightening administrative
machine, in which about a million people were involved as delegates, adminis-
trators, and so on by 1975.
The constitution, one of the longest and most complex in the world, with its
406 articles, contained a series of elements to strengthen the socialist basis
of Yugoslavia: a new specific form of the dictatorship of the proletariat within
the framework of a harmonious state structure, where the republics and the
provinces would enjoy special autonomies. Only defense, internal security, for-
eign policy, and the common market would be handled by the federal govern-
ment.^20 “According to this constitution,” said Kardelj, “Yugoslavia will not be a
federation or a classical confederation, but a union of people, able to introduce
a new category into international relations. In such a union, national indepen-
dence can develop better than in traditional federal or confederal systems.”^21
Tito was much more circumspect. When he gave the constitutional draft to his
old friend Fitzroy Maclean, he asked: “Do you think it will function?”
“I don’t see why it shouldn’t,” answered Maclean politely.
“I hope so,” said the marshal, not without a hint of skepticism.^22
Actually, the constitution did not function, as a Serb politician observed:
“The shrewd Slovene has fooled Tito terribly.... Instead of a monolithic party,