Transnational Circulations of Industrial Democracy Models in Cold War Europe: Italy, Yugoslavia and Self-Management (1950s–1970s)

This article deals with the reception of the Yugoslav model of self-management in Italy between the 1950s and 1970s. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources from Yugoslav and Italian archives, this research provides new evidence about transnational exchanges of models of industrial democracy that transcended ideological barriers and the Cold War divide and linked Italian party elites, trade unions and Christian-oriented movements to the ‘Yugoslav model’ in a common search for a ‘third way’ in industrial relations.