Titoism - Ideology

Ideology

Elements of Titoism are characterized by policies and practices based on the principle that in each country, the means of attaining ultimate communist goals must be dictated by the conditions of that particular country, rather than by a pattern set in another country. It is distinct from Joseph Stalin's Socialism in One Country theory as Tito advocated cooperation between nations through the Non-aligned Movement, while at the same time pursuing socialism in whatever ways best suited particular nations. On the other hand Socialism in One Country focused on fast industrialisation and modernisation in order to compete with what Stalin perceived as the more advanced nations of the west. During Tito’s era, his ideas specifically meant that the communist goal should be pursued independently of (and often in opposition to) what he referred to as the Stalinist and Imperialist policies of the Soviet Union.

Throughout his time in office, Tito prided himself on Yugoslavia's independence from the Soviet Union, with Yugoslavia never accepting full membership of the Comecon and Tito's open rejection of many aspects of Stalinism as the most obvious manifestations of this.

The Soviets and their satellite states usually accused Yugoslavia of Trotskyism and fascism, charges loosely based on Tito's samoupravljanje (self-management) and the theory of associated labor (profit sharing policies and worker-owned industries initiated by him, Milovan Đilas, and Edvard Kardelj in 1950). In these, the Soviet leadership saw the seeds of council communism or even corporatism.

The propaganda attacks centered on the caricature of Tito the Butcher, aimed to pinpoint him as a covert agent of Western "imperialism". Tito was in fact welcomed by Western powers as an ally, but he never lost his communist credentials.