First Free Elections in Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia is now irreversibly on the road to a multiparty system as the framework in which both the fate of democracy and the future of the Yugoslav federation will be determined. That at least is quite certain, although the fate of neither democracy nor Yugoslavia is certain. At the end of this year, if all goes according to plan, multiparty free elections are mandated for all Yugoslav federal units.

Old habits and systems die hard and new ones are developing with many false or ambiguous starts. Despite an ever freer press and political life, many old institutions continue functioning as if nothing has changed. Despite the free multiparty contests in two republics, Slovenia and Croatia, in spring 1990 and others announced for th...