TWO CONCEPTIONS OF THE STANDING OF VOJVODINA DURING THE CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS OF THE 1960S

Abstract

In Yugoslavia in the 1960s there were marked constitutional reforms in the internal plan, the goal of which was to establish new relations between the republics and the federal state and, in particular, between the autonomous provinces and the Republic of Serbia. Just as the reforms of the federal constitution took place as a sign of a conflict between two conceps (which were per­sonified by Evard Kardelj and Aleksandar Ranković), so did the future standing of the AP (Au­tonomous Province) of Vojvodina provoke the expert polemics of the prominent Serbian official, Miloš Milić and the Vojvodinian legal experts assembled in the Office of Public Administration of the AP Vojvodina.

Milić’s Supplement to the Discussions about the New Constitution was published in the mid­dle of October, 1960 in the newspaper Borba in four installments, in an abridged format according to the available space in daily newspapers, as well as according to perhaps political necessity. The author himself justified his contribution by the need to assert his opinion within the ongoing preparations for the constitutional bill. At the very beginning, Miloš Minić extensively analyzed the Marxist-Leninist theoretical view of the principles of political organization, as well as of autono­my and centralization. The second part of the Supplement dealt with the Yugoslav experience with federalism with particular reference to relations between the federal state and its federal units. The third installment was completely devoted to the development of counties, while the final part of Minić’s document was, according to him, “a very short summary of a detailed analysis of cer­tain basic legal and political questions concerning the development of autonomous provinces.”

In fact, the Vojvodinian leadership had not been caught off-guard by Minić’s project. Rather, a few months before it was proclaimed to the people, it had a conscious view of the Province’s future status. This was evident in documents from the Office of Public Administration of the AP Vojvodina, which had already presented its opinion of the forthcoming constitutional changes in the spring (May-June) of 1961 in the form of a few comprehensive documents. These included a report by Dr. Budimir Damjanov and Milivoj Kovačević entitled The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Commentaries on Regulations on the Federal and Repubic Constitutions which Regulate the Legal Standing of AP Vojvodina, and some further elaborations.