TITOISM: Pattern for International Communism

Dr. McVicker, who teaches political science at Yale, recounts here the recent history, political and economic, of Yugoslavia. That the Tito brand of ""social democracy"" will be the future pattern for international communism is, of course, a mooted question. But that, as a Communist deviant from the Soviet ""state Capitalism"" system, Yugoslavia is a new creation is reason enough for this study. The author is more than fair in explaining the pecularities of the Yugoslavian situation. He spends a good deal of time in delineating ideological developments within the Party since the time of the Yugoslavia expulsion from the Cominform, including, of course, the rationale behind the defection of Milovan Djilas. He relates amply and in well documented fashion the numerous internal reforms, economic, political, agricultural and legal that have evolved through Yugoslavia's decentralization programs and finally describes Titoism as ""at best, a benevolent dictatorship"". Because Yugoslavia is, in the final analysis, really an example of totalitarian pragmatism it would be incautious to view it as a model of things to come in international communism. But Dr. McVicker is almost hopeful about Yugoslavia, more optimistic, in fact, than Djilas himself. The effort here is erudite and academic-a valuable addition to the literature on the communist phenomena-which will be of greatest interest to the student of current politics.