Current Theoretical problems of Yugoslav Agricultural Co-operatives

The author tries to interpret the questions raised during recent discussions on Yugoslav agricultural co-operatives in the light of E. Kardelj’s theory on agricultural co-operatives. In the first section of his article the author sums up the principal views of that theory and states that the agricultural co-operative is not the aspired ultimate model of socialist development in rural communities. Therefore from the point of view of Kardelj’s theory the disappearance of the characteristics of the co-operative as an association of co-operating members, and the strengthening of its characteristics as an enterprise cannot be critically assessed. What is called the Yugoslav \u27co-operative question\u27 can be treated exclusively as a question of the possibility of the development of group economic operation by private farmers on the principles of workers’ self-management. However, this type of enterprise need not necessarily be organized on the co-operative model. The author then discusses the various aspects of agricultural co-operatives as a factor of co-operation between self-managed socialist enterprises and a number of peasant households. He states that the system of socialist enterprises, in which workers’ self-management is developed, must not be identified with co-operative farming. Co-operative principles and the principles of workers’ self-management — despite a number of similarities — are not identical. This raises the problem of finding the laws of the transformation of agricultural co-operatives into the system of self-managed socialist enterprises. Bearing in mind this nature of the Yugoslav co-operative problem, the author takes a critical view of the concept which calls for a simple reconstruction of the classical agricultural co-operative while at the same time neglecting the problem of setting up this type of collective enterprise on the principle of workers\u27 self- -management. This problem cannot be solved by the classical type of co-operative, which thus cannot be regarded as a special form of socialist evolution which could develop without conflicting with the self-managing system of economic operation. Starting from this basic view, the author discusses the elements of the concept of agricultural co-operative according to which in the system of self- -managed socialist economic operation co-operatives may take over the functions of a socializing mechanism. The co-operative can become a kind of group enterprise of associated private farmers capable of a regular production of goods. It cannot avoid the processes of agro-industrial integration which turns in into a factor of the subordination of private agricultural producers to the great agro- -industrial integrational unit. In developing its character as a self-managing enterprise, the co-operative may become a factor of the real integration of private smallholders with the system of socialist economic operation. In fact, the problem which theory should deal with more thoroughly is how to ensure that group enterprises of associated private farmers evolve from the co-operative form to the self- -managing form of economic organization