ABSTRACT
During the 1980s Yugoslavia was beset by an economic and political crisis that seriously destabilized the country and eventually impaired its very existence. The escalation of ethnic tensions in Kosovo—which followed on the heels of a major balance-of-payment crisis during 1980—and subsequent severe administrative restrictions on imports revealed serious problems with both domestic and external policy that had been festering during Tito's rule. The post-Tito debate concerning the problems and future of the self-managed socialist model can be clustered around three major contending reform strategies. First is the Serbian strategy, inspired by Slobodan Milosevic who emerged in 1987 as Serbia's most influential political leader. Second is the Slovenian strategy, representing the views expressed by the republican state and party League of Yugoslav Communists (LCY) leadership in Slovenia. Final reform strategy is the federal government's strategy, associated with the program of Ante Markovic, who in early 1987 became the head of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), Yugoslavia's federal state cabinet.
