Samoupravne interesne zajednice u socijalističkom samoupravnom društvu
Self-Managing Communities of Interest in the Socialist Self-Management Society

Summary/Abstract: One of the main aims• of our constitutional system, dating back from the Constitutional Law of 1953, has been to make the assemblies of socio-political communities operate not only as organs of authority but also as bodies of self-management of social affairs, socialised also in their capacity of organs of authority, i.e. to enable the most direct possible participation of delegates from organisations and communities of working people. For that reason, under the constitutional system of 1953, primary importance in the assemblies of socio-political communities was attached to the chambers of producers, and under the constitutional system of 1963 to the chambers of working communities and to organisational-political chambers, in their capacity of general chambers of the system of self-management. In keeping with the fundamental idea of the socialisation of political power and of assemblies as bodies of self-management, and wishing to assert the domination of the working class (which was the objective of the establishment of chambers• of producers), the new constitutional order has introduced into the assembly system chambers of associated labour, set up on the delegational principle. This stresses the equality of the socio-economic status of all workers. - It became evident, however, that this composition of assemblies could result in the neglect of social politicies, education and culture, since the representatives of organisations of associated labour from those fields would constitute only an insignificant minority in the chambers of associated labour, in view of the number of workers in those fields. Even the representation of socio-political organisations in socio-political chambers could not rectify this shortcoming to any significant degree. For that reason, when decisions concerning their scope of activity are being made, this is done with the participation of assemblies of interest communities from the fields of education, science, health, social welfare ex constitutione, and of some others. When taking part in the work of the assembly of socio-political communities, these assemblies of self-managing communities of interest have equal right of decision-making. It should be particularly stressed that, also on such occasions, they adopt stands in keeping with the views of their chambers, i.e. the providers of resources and the providers of services. If in any of these fields there are more than one self-managing community of interest in the municipality, all of them constitute a single assembly. Their mutual relations are subject to regulation by the statutes of municipalities, laws and assembly bylaws. And conversely, if there is no community of interest in the area covered by a socio-political community, decision has to be made as to who participates in the work of its assembly. The •introduction of assemblies of self-managing communities of interest into the assemblies of socio-political communities implies that the constitutional system attaches special attention to social policies in the broadest sense of the term. The assemblies of all socio-political communities, beginning from the federation, should define their social policies in conformance to the constitutional principles, though not as organs of authority ranking above the self-managing subjects but together with them. The pres17nce of self-managing communities of interest in the assemblies of socio-political communities has a twofold impact also on legislative policies. Firstly, their presence will have an effect on the whole legislation in the sense that the will of interest communities will be reflected in it and, secondly, it will prevent the legislatures from treating those relations and problems which are meant by the constitutional system to be dealt with through self-management in communities of interest. Although the constitutional concept of interest communities proceeds from the entire development hitherto and is based on the traditions of the labour movement, although these communities are the inevitable consequences of new socio-economic and political relations and an expression of the domination of the working class, based on equal socio-economic status of all workers, their establishment still introduces some essentially new elements in social relations. This calls particularly for the initiative of scientific workers from the field of social sciences in shedding light on all the implications of this new social institution and in contributing to still better insight into the role and scope of self-managing communities of interest.

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