Formation and the Tito–Stalin split: 1919–1966 The
1st Congress of the LCY was held from 20 to 23 April 1919 and established the Socialist Labour Party of Yugoslavia (Communists). The party adopted a
statute that stated that the executive committee functioned as the central committee's operational body. The
3rd LCY Congress, which was held from 14 to 22 May 1926, changed the body's name to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, which was abbreviated to Politburo. The LCY leadership, including its politburo, was dismissed by the
Communist International in April 1928, and a new politburo was elected following the
4th Congress, which was held from 3 to 15 November 1928. The most powerful politburo members concurrently served as members of the
Secretariat and collectively held the title Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Until 1948, informal norms often trumped formal decision-making institutions, which remained weak and underdeveloped. For instance,
Josip Broz Tito was elected to the politburo in 1934 and was later elected to the central committee. According to party statutes, only central committee members could serve in the politburo. The politburo was also formally held accountable to the party's central committee but from October 1940 to 12 April 1948, the
Central Committee of the 4th Congress did not convene; during this period, the politburo ran the party in the name of the central committee. On 8 December 1936, the office of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was established, and it chaired the politburo and central committee meetings. As general secretary, Tito had considerable influence over the selection of the central committee and its politburo. During the 1940s, Tito began abrogating the politburo's responsibilities and centralised power in his own hands. According to
Aleksandar Ranković, a member of both the politburo and the secretariat, exchanges between the Yugoslav party and its counterparts in Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland and the Soviet Union were hidden from the politburo. Upon asking Tito at a politburo session to publicise this information to the attendees, Tito responded: "I am the secretary general of the party. I have the right to decide what to tell you and the others." The party secretaries Tito, Ranković,
Edvard Kardelj and
Milovan Djilas, who comprised the secretariat, had considerable informal influence on the politburo. They would often decide on policies before meetings and get the politburo to
rubber stamp them. These power relations remained intact until the dissolution of the secretariat in 1966. According to Ranković, the
statute adopted by the
5th Congress in 1948, "was by and large a copy of the Statute of the Soviet Communist Party". As a result of the
Tito–Stalin split, a conflict in which the Soviet political leadership accused the Yugoslav communists of breaking with communism, the LCY began questioning the Soviet model and its suitability for Yugoslavia. The LCY began to stealthily move towards more
democracy and the
decentralisation of socio-political life. This trend was first confirmed at the 5th Session of the
Central Committee of the 5th Congress on 27 May 1952, and later that year at the
6th Congress, which was held from 3 to 7 November. The congress changed the party's name from Communist Party of Yugoslavia to League of Communists of Yugoslavia; according to Tito: "in view of the fact that the role of the Party at this stage of our social development changed to a certain extent ... the word Party is no longer adequate". It was argued designating the LCY as the leading force in society was wrong and accordingly, the 6th Congress stated instead the party "mobilises and moves the broadest masses of the people to action by political and organisational means, so that its struggle and achievements make it a leader". These changes did not affect the LCY's internal organisation or
democratic centralism. The Politburo's name was changed to the Executive Committee and the Secretariat was made responsible to it rather than to the Central Committee.
The decentralisation of power: 1966–1978 The institutional framework established at the 6th Congress in 1952 lasted until the 5th Session of the
Central Committee of the 8th Congress on 4 October 1966. On 1 July 1966, at the 4th Session of the Central Committee of the 8th Congress, the LCY purged Tito's presumed successor Aleksandar Ranković, the
Vice President of Yugoslavia and the head of the
State Security Administration, for allegedly bugging Tito's bedroom. To reduce the over-centralisation of power in key individuals, the same session established the 40-member
Commission for the Reorganisation and Further Development of the LCY (CRFD–LCY), which was headed by
Mijalko Todorović, to recommend party organisational reform. The commission proposed radical measures;
Mitja Ribičič proposed abandoning democratic centralism and
Krste Crvenkovski talked of the possibility of a non-party democracy and the coming dissolution of the LCY. In September that year, Tito responded by stating neither of these proposals would be debated. At the 5th Session, the CRFD–LCY proposed abolishing the office of LCY general secretary and replacing it with a President of the LCY Central Committee. On their recommendation, the Executive Committee and the Secretariat were abolished and replaced with two new bodies, the presidency and a new executive committee. The presidency was to be headed by the president while the executive committee was led by a
secretary. The executive committee was to execute the presidency's policies and the presidency was to formulate policies. According to the CRFD–LCY, the reorganisation was intended to "put an end to, or at least to reduce to a minimum the danger of monopoly and concentration of competencies". Following the decentralisation of socio-economic life that began with the Tito–Stalin split, the commission proposed to institute a fixed system of representation in the presidency and the executive committee. In the presidency, the
League of Communists of Serbia (LC Serbia) and the
League of Communists of Croatia (LC Croatia) were each represented by nine members; the
League of Communists of Slovenia (LC Slovenia) and the
League of Communists of Bosnia-Herzegovina (LC Bosnia-Herzegovina) each with seven members;
League of Communists of Macedonia (LC Macedonia) and the
League of Communists of Montenegro (LC Montenegro) each with six members; and the
League of Communists of Kosovo (LC Kosovo) and the
League of Communists of Vojvodina (LC Vojvodina) had one representative each. It was also made clear the presidency and the executive committee were accountable to the sessions of the LCY Central Committee. According to Todorović, many commission members feared the reorganisation was insufficient to halt the centralisation of power and that the presidency would do the same as the former executive committee. This fear was confirmed by the reelection of
17 of 18 former executive committee members to the presidency. Fourteen members of the reorganisation commission were also elected to the presidency, and these members may have wanted to implement their own reformist proposals. The reorganisation of the former executive committee and the decentralisation of the appointment of mid-level cadres from the centre to the republican leaderships considerably weakened the new presidency's influence. The delineation of functions between the presidency and the executive committee did not work as planned; the two bodies convened joint sessions rather than working separately. This, combined with the normalisation of term limits and elections in place of the appointment of cadres, also weakened the central party authorities. At the LCY Central Committee's 7th Session on 1 July 1968, it accepted the commission's proposal to expand the presidency to about fifty members and establish a smaller, non-political secretariat attached to it at the
9th Congress. This proposal was made because the presidency and the executive committee proved too large, and because of this, informal coordination groups were established to enforce policies. The LCY Central Committee also adopted a proposal to be sent to the 9th Congress for its own self-abolition and replacement with a conference. This, by extension, meant that the office of president of the LCY Central Committee was abolished and replaced with that of president of the LCY. At the same session, the
Commission for Cadre Policy of the LCY Central Committee proposed the abolition of the existing
proportional representation formula approved by the 5th Session and institute
equal representation of all republican branches in the presidency. It also proposed a change to method of elections of presidency members. According to the commission, "it is natural that the deciding role in the nomination of members for the [Presidency] of the LCY belongs to the republican organisations of the League of Communists"; it proposed instituting a system in which candidates for the presidency would be nominated by the republican central committees, elected by the republican congresses and verified by the federal congress. The intention was to turn the individuals in question from presidency members who had come from a republic to "representatives of a republic in the central leadership". The 7th Session approved these changes, and by the 9th Congress on 11–15 March 1969, Tito, in his function as LCY president, was the only remnant of an independent party centre. Until the 9th Congress, important decisions were no longer made at federal meetings but through
ad-hoc meetings of republican representatives and interpersonal visits. The 9th Congress adopted the LCY Central Committee's suggestions for reorganisation, but before the meeting, Tito had arranged an informal meeting with the republican leaders to discuss the possibility of re-centralisation. Tito informed the congress "we arrived at the mutual view that it is necessary that we strengthen the centre of the leadership of the League of Communists, and particularly the Executive Bureau". The new executive bureau consisted of the LCY president, two members from each republic and one from each autonomous province, and the presidency was expanded to 52 members. Only members of the presidency were eligible to serve in the executive bureau. Some officials, such as
Krste Crvenkovski, voiced fears the new organ would re-centralise too much power in their hands; according to Crvenkovski, "in Macedonia, as in other republics, there were certain reservations about the new organisational forms of the leading organs of the LCY". Several rules made that impossible. For instance, all members had to resign from their political positions in the republics and the autonomous provinces. All members except Tito were accountable to the party organisation that elected them, and the members had varied backgrounds that made close collaboration more difficult. Also, the executive bureau met at least once a week, and its responsibilities were broad. It quickly became overwhelmed with work, making it difficult for its members to centralise power. Following the 9th Congress, a report analysing the reorganisation stated the LCY was reduced to an alliance of republican and provincial organisations, and the presidency was reduced to a series of meetings of mutual information and consultation with no obligations to implement the policies agreed upon by its members. The presidency failed, per the "
Rules of Procedure on the Organisation and Activity of the Presidency of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia", to convene at least once a month from June to October 1969 and from December 1969 to April 1970. At the
2nd Conference, which was held from 25 to 27 January 1972, the LCY was re-centralised as a reaction to the
Croatian Spring, a political conflict between the LCY and LC Croatia in which the former called for more autonomy for the
Socialist Republic of Croatia within Yugoslavia. The executive bureau was reduced from fifteen to eight members. Each member was given different responsibilities and while the branches elected members, they were not supposed to be held accountable to them. The office of Secretary of the Executive Bureau of the LCY Presidency" was established to strengthen the bureau's ability to implement its decisions. The
10th Congress, which was held from 27 to 30 May 1974, formalised these changes by amending the party statute. The congress abolished the conference, re-established the LCY Central Committee and renamed the executive bureau the Executive Committee of the Presidency of the LCY Central Committee. All twelve members of the executive committee were made members of the presidency, blurring the differences between these two organs. A system of
executive secretaries of the presidency was established at the 10th Congress; these officeholders were limited to two terms.
Collective leadership: 1978–1990 The executive committee was abolished, and the presidency was reduced in size at the
11th Congress, which was held from 20 to 23 June 1978, and the stipulation for the renewal of one-third of its members at every congress was removed. The new presidency was similar to the earlier politburo, and it was given a political and directive role over party affairs. Each presidency member was hereafter given a portfolio and headed a commission. A secretary and several executive secretaries were to be attached to the presidency; these were responsible for "operational work and carrying-out policy", and had "concrete responsibility for specific areas of work". Other amendments to the LCY statute, such as a redefinition of democratic centralism, also strengthened the central party leadership's authority. New lines stated central party organs, which included the presidency, were "the unified political leadership of the entire League of Communists of Yugoslavia", and that each member of the presidency had equal responsibility for the implementation of central party policies. The presidency was given the right to communicate and participate directly in the affairs of the republican organisations and direct communication with mass organisations. The new statute also further clarified the right of the branches of republican, autonomous provinces and the
LCY organisation in the
Yugoslav People's Army (YPA) to elect and dismiss members of the presidency. The two-term limit for executive secretaries was abolished and replaced with a one-term limit. None of the executive secretaries elected in 1974 were re-elected. According to the new statute, executive secretaries worked under the presidency's leadership by abolishing the executive committee. Not long after the 11th Congress, on 19 October 1978, the presidency adopted the
Rules of Procedure on the Organisation and Working Method of the Presidency to institute and protect
collective leadership. It established a new office of Chairman of the Presidency of the LCY Central Committee. In cooperation with the LCY secretary and members of the presidency, the new office would work under the LCY president's instructions. Preparation and scheduling of meetings of the presidency were the chairman's responsibility. In the absence of the LCY president, the chairman presided over the presidency's meetings. When the LCY president was absent from meetings of the presidency, the secretary and chairman had to maintain contact with the chairman to inform him about important questions and the results of the meetings. These responsibilities were formerly assigned to the secretary of the presidency, who was formerly the secretary of the executive committee. The chairmanship was limited to a one-year term and the office rotated in an eight-year cycle among the leadership of the republics, the autonomous provinces and the LCY organisation in the YPA. Term limits were later expanded to include the secretary of the presidency, which had a two-term limit and also rotated in an eight-year cycle. Tito rationalised these reforms on 23 October 1979 at a session of the
presidency of the 11th LCY Congress:
Tito died on 4 May 1980. In his last years in power, he seldom participated in decision-making and delegated his authority to the presidency chairman. At first, there was uncertainty about what to do with the office of LCY Central Committee president, but on 12 June 1980, the 11th Session of the
Central Committee of the 12th Congress decided to leave the office vacant and delegate its authority to the Central Committee and, between its sessions, to the presidency. The same session renamed the office of chairman of the presidency to President of the Presidency of the LCY Central Committee, and this office functioned as the LCY party leader until the adjournment of the
14th LCY Congress on 26 May 1990. Unlike the LCY president, the presidency president could serve only a one-year term and could not nominate members to the presidency; this authority was delegated to an internal commission of the presidency. These changes were designated as temporary and were formally adopted at the
12th Congress on 26 to 29 June 1982. Without Tito, the LCY became even more decentralised. With no centralising figure, the LCY became an amalgamation of its branches. Several republican branches opposed the appointment of
Dragoslav Marković to the presidency but acquiesced "since it was the business of the Serbian Party". During the
1981 protests in Kosovo, several officials said they first learnt about the crisis through the newspaper rather than through official LCY channels. In the run-up to the 12th Congress, several officials, most of them Serbs from LC Serbia, proposed re-centralising the LCY. In November 1981, the
LC Montenegro Central Committee proposed to divest the republican organisations of their right to elect members of the LCY Central Committee while others sought to standardise a two-year term-limit system for the president of the presidency and his counterparts in the branches. The 12th Congress did not approve these changes and instead formalised the temporary changes that were instituted after Tito's death. The congress adopted rules that strengthened the LCY Central Committee
vice-a-vice the presidency, making the former more dependent on support in the LCY Central Committee to enact policies. At the 3rd Session of the
Central Committee of the 12th Congress on 24 September 1982, LCY presidency president
Mitja Ribičič noted the presidency had become a "simple recorder of different attitudes and conditions in the republics and provinces". The re-centralisation debate continued at the
13th LCY Congress, which was held from 25 to 28 June 1986 but the
status quo was retained. At the 26th Session of the
Central Committee of the 13th Congress, which was held on 11 September 1989,
Ivan Brigić, who led the work on formulating amendments to the party statute at the upcoming 14th Congress, proposed abolishing the presidency and replacing it with a new executive body composed of fifteen members and no
ex officio members. It also proposed abolishing the office of president of the presidency and reintroducing the office of president of the LCY Central Committee, who would serve a two-year term. The proposed new executive body would not be independent of the LCY Central Committee; its main tasks would be "to ensure that the decisions and conclusions of the LCY [Central Committee] are implemented". From 20 to 22 January 1990, the LCY convened its 14th Congress. Following the
1989 fall of communism in most of Eastern Europe and in the context of heightened conflict within the LCY on ethnic lines, the Slovene delegation left the congress on 22 January. LC Croatia supported the Slovenes and left as well. The congress went into recess on 22 January and reconvened on 26 May. In the interim, LC Slovena, LC Croatia, and LC Macedonia had left the LCY. Several members of the presidency also left but some, such as president
Milan Pančevski, who refused to leave office before his term ended, remained despite the decision of their republican branch. When reconvening on 26 May, the 14th Congress opted not to re-elect the presidency and the central committee, and instead elected a provisional leadership named the
Committee for the Preparation of the Congress of Democratic and Programmatic Renewal of the LCY Central Committee. This committee was tasked with convening the 15th LCY Congress and renewing the party organisation. It failed in its task and the committee―the last federal organ of the LCY―self-dissolved on 22 January 1991. ==Authority and powers==