ABSTRACT
Economic crisis added a note of urgency to perennial questions about self-management’s effect on Yugoslav society. In terms of self-management’s unanticipated consequences, Yugoslavs have been surprised and disappointed by the realization that people really are not socialized in dramatically different ways. Although Yugoslav self-management has always been criticized for serious contradictions between theory and practice, the plasticity of self-management’s basic values accommodates and legitimizes conflicting models of behavior. In particular, self-management suggests a more open, or less exclusive, socialization process than in other societies. Self-managers should learn to participate in public events regardless of social class, traditional background, or other socially-imposed divisions, and value this participation above all other rights and responsibilities. The economic crisis of the 1980s has altered the prism through which self-management and society as a whole are viewed.
