ABSTRACT
The competitive elections held in Yugoslavia's republics from April through December 1990 constituted a major watershed in the country's political development. Political leaders in Slovenia and Croatia supported the radical transformation of the existing federation into a "confederation of sovereign states," although they threatened to proceed with unilateral secession from the existing state should planned 1991 interrepublican negotiations on the country's future prove unsuccessful. This chapter examines the characteristics of the political elites and leaders who had come to power, or who had consolidated their power, during the 1990 multiparty elections and the new political climate in which they were operating. It discusses the course and outcome of the negotiations on Yugoslavia's political reorganization during late 1990 and the first part of 1991. In 1991, Markovic warned the country's immobilized Federal Assembly that as a result of the refusal of the republics to either economically or politically support the federation, the country's economic system and reform program faced total collapse.
