ABSTRACT
In Yugoslavia, as in other Communist-ruled countries, corruption and dishonest management were more or less acceptable ways of attaining goals that could not be achieved through legitimate means. The Soviet-Yugoslav Declaration restated the notion that every party was accountable "to the working class and people of its own country" and that there had to be "mutual respect for different paths in building socialism." Agrokomerc could be seen as a microcosm of Yugoslavia, which for decades had been living beyond its means on foreign credits that could not be repaid. Agrokomerc came to symbolize Yugoslavia's general economic decay. Party and government officials tended to see the scandal as a blessing in disguise, however, because it exposed weaknesses in Yugoslavia's whole economy. Indeed, an economist in Ljubljana described the affair as a product of Yugoslavia's "feudal economic system." Bogomir Kovac said that Yugoslavia had more of "a feudal system" than a real market economy with mobility and free movement of products.
