Delegatski sistem i funkcioniranje samoupravne socijalističke demokracije
The Delegational System and the Working of Self-Management Socialist Democracy

Summary/Abstract: The first part of the paper is a survey of the evolution of the idea of delegacy in the world, and of the gradual incorporation of the delegational relation and the delegational system in the Yugoslav political system, from 1950 up to the adoption of the 1974 Constitution. The author traces the gradual assimilation of the idea of the delegational system in political practice since 1953, side by side with representative democracy and parallel to the expansion and strengthening of self-management, until the adoption of the 1974 Constitution, which has abolished the dualism of the representative and delegational system and provided the constitutional and legal basis for the establishment of an assembly system founded exclusively on the delegational relation. The second part deals with the essential characteristics of the delegational system, stressing in the first place that it has been conceived as a universal principle underlying the working of the socio-economic and socio-political system. It is also claimed that delegacy is not only a new organizational from of the functioning of the state but is also a manifestation of the withering away and transformation of the state, and that the delegational principle can be implemented only within a system which has transcended the various forms of alienation of surplus labour from the workers. The basic premises that have to be materialized are suggested, in order to establish the delegational system as the emanation of the new socialist production relations based on self-management. This entails, above all, the assertion of the so-called inalienable right {)f the workers to control the income they have realized and the construction and efficient operation of the institutional self-management mechanism, from the social base up to the federation, a mechanism founded on the delegational system. After suggesting the premises required for the practical realization of the delegational system, the author concludes that the principal function of that system is to ensure the decision-making of the working class on material resources and on all social issues on which decisions are taken within a broader framework than the basic organization of associated labour. In the third part of the paper the suggestion is made that, in evolving a new political system, the 1974 Constitution lays stress on the realization and domination of the interests of organized working people within the process of social labour, combining them with the interests that the working people and the citizens realize in their places of residence and in political organizations. Contrary to representative democracy, in which the political system is built proceeding from the individual citizen as the subject of the state, the construction of the new political system of delegacy proceeds from the free manifestation and democratic confrontation of the essential interests of organized working people and citizens in their place of work, in their place of residence, in socio-political organizations, and in various forms of resource pooling for the purpose of satisfying the needs of the social standard. Through the confrontation and democratic adjustment of these essential interests the delegational system is expected to enable, on the one hand, the free expression of group interests, but also their reconciliation with general social interests. For this reason the Constitution provides for the twofold responsibility of delegates: towards their self-managing organizations and communities, which elect and recall them, and towards the society, granting the delegates the right to depart from the instructions received from the organization or community which has elected them. The character of the delegate's tenure as formulated in the new Constitution is considered in detail, contrasting it with the imperative mandate of the Paris Commune and with the free representative tenure. The last section deals in detail with the function of the delegation, in its capacity of collective deputy, which is expected to make possible constant interaction between the organized working people and citizens and the delegation and delegates, both in the places where they work and where they live (in the basic organization of associated labour and in the local community).

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