Pregledni rad
The Socialist Development of the Village: Material Development and Changes in Consciousness
Zdravko Mlinar
Sažetak
Processes of development in the
village and in agriculture were
often the subject of Edvard
Kardelj's research and
ideological-political interest. His
studies cover a wide range —
from general theoretic questions
concerning long-term laws and
trends of social development, to
the most concrete solutions in
everyday practice.
Analyzing Kardelj's work we
discover an originality and a search
for a specifically Yugoslav path of
socialist development. He stressed
the role of the subjective factor
and of consciously directing
developmental changes with the
purpose of a socialist
transformation of agriculture and
the peasantry. Rejecting voluntary
constructions, he demanded that
the material and technical basis
be primarily considered, and also
the readiness of the peasant to be
included in the process of such a
transformation. As a research worker — both a
sociologist and a politician,
Kardelj was conscious that the
most intense and greatest processes
of structural change are today
taking place in Yugoslavia. He
studied the development of
agriculture and the village from
the aspect of a dialectic process
of the social division of labour.
That division shows itself through
the breaking up of closed village
communities and overcoming the
historical remains of economic, cultural and political particularism,
which hampered the development
of a national and global market
of high productivity. The same
basic objective can be felt in
Kardelj's work; it shows itself
both in a clear consciousness of
long-term laws of development, and
in a firm resolution that the
socialist policy in the village must
not be founded on state pressure,
but on an economic and political
alliance with peasants.
Theoretically Kardelj interpreted
the general social development
through a complete system of
free and associated labour,
within which the peasantry also
have their place and perspective.
He showed the importance of the
Yugoslav concept of personal
material interest of the working
people, of material stimulation for
greater work productivity and of
the role of market production both
in agriculture, and in the Yugoslav
economic system in general.
Kardelj took into account the
actual dynamism of changes in
development, which take place in
the wide span between the
conservative inclinations of the
peasants and voluntary radicalism,
which can be felt from time to
time in desires to change certain
conditions in short-term
campaigns. Kardelj considers both
unacceptable, stressing that
agriculture and the village cannot
develop without a plan; he thus
emphasizes the role of subjective forces in changing relationships in
the village, and takes into account
the readiness of the peasants
themselves to join programmes
of development.
All Kardelj's discussions about
agriculture and the vilage contain
reflections on the necessity of
socializing the production process.
Kardelj does not follow any
dogmas that have already been
determined, but searches for the
forms and means of that
socialization in the experience
given by Yugoslav practice, or that
in other socialist countries.
Today cooperatives link peasants
with the socialized sector,
coordinating the individual interest
of farmers with the collective
interest of Yugoslav socialist
development. According to Kardelj,
cooperatives are the simplest
form of a link with the socialist
economic system. They can serve
as a basis for more progressive
socialist forms of agricultural
production and as an impulse of
progress in agriculture. The
basic means of production play a
decisive role, while the role of land
ownership decreases with the
increase of the volume of modern
socialized agricultural production
within the process of production.
Thus socialism’s true economic
power in agriculture does not lie
in the percentage of collectivized
land, but in a greater work
productivity in the socialized than
in the private sector. Kardelj’s work reveals a constant
factor — a clear long-term
objective, the socialist
transformation of the village and
agriculture. As Kardelj himself
finds, the Associated Labour Act
also did not introduce a completely
novel concept, but only
strengthened and supplemented
Yugoslavia’s permanent orientation.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
119367
URI
Datum izdavanja:
12.12.1979.
Posjeta: 736 *