Yugoslav Women in Politics
| Published date | 01 July 1985 |
| Author | Tanja Rener |
| Date | 01 July 1985 |
| DOI | 10.1177/019251218500600308 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
YUGOSLAV
WOMEN
IN
POLITICS
Selected
Issues
TANJA
RENER
According to its normative
principles,
the delegate system ensures the working peo-
ple’s direct presence in the assemblies (communal, provincial, republican, and federal),
as well
as
a
functional linkage
of
short- and long-term interests of individual sections
of
society and
of
society as a whole. This lends special interest to women’s participa-
tion in the delegate system. This article examines the findings
of
research conducted
in Slovenia, particularly concerning the special social status according to women ac-
tive in the delegate system, the nature
of
their participation,
as
well as their attitudes
to active political participation.
Now
that Yugoslavia is undergoing
a
crisis. pressure
is
brought to bear
on
women
to
yield their places on the labor market to
men
and-
althoggh the principle
of
sex equality is given much prominence in the
country’s
life-to
concentrate
on
traditional women’s roles.
The drive to introduce socialist self-management in Yugoslavia has had
a
powerful impact on the overall economic and social development
of the country. It has also necessitated fairly frequent changes in the
political system. In the post-war years, the political system underwent
a
qualititative change from
a
representative system of socialist
democracy to a delegate system
of
socialist self-management. The
delegate system is the groundwork upon which assemblies at the com-
munal, provincial, republican, and federal levels are constituted, com-
prising collective delegations
of
organizations of associated labor, local
communities, and socio-political organizations. According to its nor-
mative principles, the delegate system ensures the working people’s
direct presence in the assemblies, makes
it
possible
for
some categories
of
the population
to
outvote others in pursuit of their political goals,
and ensures that the short- and long-term interests
of
individual
segments
of
society and
of
society as
a
whole
are functionally linked.
The delegate system
is
an institutionally new and special kind
of
link
between self-management and government. It is the universal princi-
International Political
Science
Review,
Vol.
6
No.
3,
1985
347-354
0
1985
International Political Science Association
347
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