Edvard Kardelj — Thinker and Theoretician of Agrarian Development

Abstract

The history of economic and social development in the world, in socialist and capitalist countries and in developing countries as well as in Yugoslavia, shows that the development of large-scale agricultural production, i.e. the socio-economic transformation of subsistance farming and the autarchic peasant — are essential factors of modern industrial progress. To understand the historical position of the peasantry and small-scale production in the total development of the forces of production, it is necessary to master Marxism completely, so that the most suitable methods of economic and social development may be established. Such a creative power is contained within the personality of Edvard Kardelj. When a socialist revolution is victorious in a country dominated by the peasantry and small-scale agricultural production, the socialist transformation of the village and the development of large-scale agricultural production are key economic and socio-political questions. The selection of methods for the socialist transformation of agriculture is basic for the final solution of the peasant question: whether to chose administrative and political collectivization, or a gradual, voluntary and democratic establishment of links between peasants and modern currents of economic and social life? Edvard Kardelj believed that the democratic association of farmers based on economic interest, complete voluntariness and gradual introduction, is the only possibility for Yugoslav socialist self-management. Kardelj\u27s scholarly and creative work concerning agrarian problems is very comprehensive. The author considers three questions especially significant for Yugoslav everyday practice: 1. the relationships between agriculture and the total economic and social development; 2. questions of association and farming cooperatives, and 3. the role of private farmers and the importance of their personal labour with their own means (i.e. privately owned means). Edvard Kardelj also sought solutions for many other questions concerning the development of agriculture and agribusiness. On one side, he emphasized the necessity of economically and organizationally linking agriculture, transport and the processing industry into a integrated chain of reproduction. On the other side, he emphasized the importance of joint planning of the investment policy, and the bringing of a social compact concerning the development of the agroindustrial complex