Once Upon a Time in the Balkans:  Centralisation, Decentralisation, and the Principle of Equality Among Republics in the Federal System of Yugoslavia

Benjamin Flander

doi:10.55073/2025.1.29-49

Authors

Benjamin Flander Associate Professor, Faculty of Criminal Law and Security, University of Maribor, Slovenia; Senior Research Associate, the Law Institute of the Science and Research Centre, Koper, Slovenia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2738-1590

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55073/2025.1.29-49

Keywords:

Yugoslavia, federalism, federal system, republics, centralisation, decentralisation, equality

Abstract

Yugoslavia was once a conglomeration of diverse nations, marked by significant socio-economic disparities and a unique, ever-evolving state structure. It transitioned from a pre-Second World War unitary state, often criticised as one nation’s claimed hegemony over others, to a federation of six nominally equal republics and two regions with an autonomous status designed to prevent such dominance. This article provides an overview of the federal system of post-war socialist Yugoslavia, examining the processes of centralisation and decentralisation and assessing how the principle of equality among the republics was applied throughout different phases of Yugoslav federalism. As this article shows, after a period of decentralisation and the strengthening of the republics’ sovereignty and independence in the late 1970s, renewed tendencies towards centralisation, the dominance of one republic over others, and the erosion of equality among the federal units contributed to intensifying conflicts between nations, ultimately leading to Yugoslavia’s disintegration. The article concludes with a comparison of Yugoslav and European (con)federalism, focusing on centralisation, decentralisation, and the principle of equality among their constituent parts.

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