This paper considers the historical evolution of the concept of self-management as it had been designed and theorized by utopian Socialists and anarchists of the 19th century, for example, Pierre Joseph Proudhon (What is Property?, 1890). In Slovenian speaking territories, the Christian Socialist Andrej Gosar was the first to develop this concept (namely, in his 1935 book For a New Social Order). Edvard Kardelj (Developmental Directives of the Socialist Self-Managed Political System, 1979) was later on the principal author of the legislation by which self-management was introduced in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the early 1950s. Specific circumstances have been considered behind the political decision to introduce self- management in Yugoslavia as well as the reasons for its failure, i.e. the interruption of the implementation of this political and economic model prior to the collapse of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The global impact of the Yugoslav model of self- management has been evaluated, as have various phenomena that point to what has remained of it or has been revived in Slovenia more recently.In the paper I have attempted to answer the following questions: Why didn't self- management in Socialist Slovenia/Yugoslavia work? How can we consider and revive the concept of self-management in the present Slovenian political and economic situation? Can autonomism as one of the theoretical foundations of self-management constitute an efficient alternative/threat to today's neoliberal global capitalism?V prispevku sem predstavila zgodovinski razvoj koncepta samoupravljanja iz političnoekonomske teorije, kot so ga utemeljili utopični socialisti in anarhisti, na primer Pierre Joseph Proudhon (Kaj je lastnina?, 1890), v našem prostoru pa krščanski socialist Andrej Gosar leta 1935 v knjigi Za nov družbeni red. Edvard Kardelj (Smeri razvoja političnega sistema socialističnega samoupravljanja, 1979) je bil nato tvorec zakonodaje, ki je uvedla samoupravljanje v SFRJ v začetku 50. let 20. stoletja. Analizirala sem specifične okoliščine, ki so botrovale odločitvi za uvedbo samoupravljanja v SFRJ, ter razloge za njegov neuspeh oziroma prekinitev implementacije z razpadom Jugoslavije v začetku 90. let. Ocenila sem vpliv jugoslovanskega modela samoupravljanja na druge politične skupnosti v svetu do danes in kaj od tega koncepta je v sodobnosti ostalo oziroma oživelo v Sloveniji.V prispevku sem poskusila odgovoriti na naslednja vprašanja: Zakaj delavsko samoupravljanje v socialistični Sloveniji oziroma Jugoslaviji ni uspelo? Kako je mogoče koncept samoupravljanja misliti in reaktualizirati v sodobnem slovenskem politično-ekonomskem kontekstu? Ali avtonomizem, ki je ena izmed teoretskih podlag samoupravljanja, lahko konstituira učinkovito alternativo oziroma grožnjo neoliberalnemu globalnemu kapitalizmu
