II.

Government

Yugoslavia was governed according to a 1974 constitution that was substantially amended following the death in 1980 of the powerful leader Josip Broz Tito, who had ruled the country since gaining power in 1945. The executive branch consisted of a collective presidency, which included a representative from each of the republics, and a federal executive council. A bicameral Federal Assembly handled legislative duties, and a federal court heard appeals of decisions by the supreme courts of the constituent republics. Local government was similar to the federal system, and included an executive council and a bicameral assembly. From 1945 until 1990, the Communist party (formally known after 1952 as the League of Communists of Yugoslavia) was the nation's sole legal political party.

A.

Culture and Society

The cultural heritage of Yugoslavia combined the various cultures of its diverse regions. Yugoslav art varied from region to region, and resisted attempts by the government to impose Socialist realism. Croatia and Slovenia, for instance, were long influenced by Austria and Hungary, and by the Roman Catholic tradition that predominates in those cultures. In Serbia, for centuries a part of the Ottoman Empire, Islamic culture took root. Notable achievements included the tomb sculpture in medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina and the 19th-century tomb painting in Serbia. Modern painting, centred in Belgrade, Ljubljana, and Zagreb, reflected Western art movements such as Impressionism and Expressionism. Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović, who based many of his works on biblical themes, was among the most prominent 20th-century sculptors. At the end of the 19th century, groups of modernist and Expressionist writers emerged in Yugoslavia as well as in the rest of Europe. Yugoslav literature enjoyed diverse and fruitful development. Well-known Yugoslav writers included Milovan Djilas and Ivo Andrić; Andrić was awarded the 1961 Nobel Prize for Literature for his distinguished work, including the 1945 novel The Bridge on the Drina. Yugoslav cinema also achieved international acclaim in the years following World War II, with such influential film-makers as Dušan Makavejev, Slobodan Sijan, and Emir Kusturica.

There were three official Yugoslav languages: Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian languages; Slovenian; and Macedonian. Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian were the dominant languages, spoken by about 75 per cent of the population, reflecting the dominance of the Serbs (36 per cent) and the Croats (20 per cent) in the ethnic makeup of the country, although they were located primarily in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The federation also included Slovenians (in Slovenia) and Macedonians (in Macedonia), as well as large minorities of Muslims, ethnic Albanians, ethnic Hungarians, ethnic Turks, and Roma (Gypsies). The two main ethnic groups utilized different written languages, with the Serbs using the Cyrillic alphabet and the Croats the Latin alphabet. Slovenian and Macedonian are closely related, although Macedonian is not recognized as a separate language by either Bulgaria or Greece. The Yugoslav constitution guaranteed freedom of religion and the separation of church and state, and about half the population belonged to the Serbian or another Orthodox Church; another 30 per cent were Roman Catholic (mostly Croats and Slovenes), and about 10 per cent were Muslim.