ABSTRACT
The fascinating political dynamics which characterized the 1969 elections represented the culmination of the experiment in pluralist socialism and a major watershed in Yugoslav political development. During the first fifty years of the state's existence (1918-1968) successive political elites utilized what was, arguably, the most varied repertoire of regime-strategies for coping with ethnic diversity ever attempted in a single country. In contrast, the period after 1969 has been marked by an uncharacteristic hesitancy and uncertainty over the future course of regime policy in this domain. The objective of this study has been to elucidate, to the fullest extent possible given the available sources of information, the effect on political cohesion of the various regime-strategies. In the next section, we shall briefly review the history of Yugoslavia's political cohesion derived from our analyses in order to set the context for a consideration of the developments and prospects of the 1970s and 1980s.
