Presidency of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia

The 1st congress of the LCY was held on 20–23 April 1919 and established the party under the name "Socialist Labour Party of Yugoslavia (Communists)". It adopted a statute that said that the operational body of the party central committee was, officially, the "Executive Committee of the Central Committee of the Socialist Labour Party of Yugoslavia (Communists)". The name of this body was changed at the 3rd LCY Congress, held on 14–22 May 1926, to "Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia", with "Politburo" being an abbreviation of "Political Bureau".[1] The LCY party leadership, including its politburo, was dismissed by the Communist International in April 1928, and a new politburo was elected at the 4th Congress, held on 3–15 November 1928. The most powerful politburo members were also members of the "Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia". The individuals in question held the title of "Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia".[2]

The formalisation of the party's political structure was not consolidated in the pre-1948 years. For instance, the Croat Josip Broz Tito was elected to the politburo in 1934 before being elected to the central committee. According to the statutes, only central committee members could serve in the politburo.[3] The politburo was also to be formally held accountable to the party central committee, but from October 1940 to 12 April 1948, the Central Committee of the 4th Congress did not convene for a single session. In this period, the politburo ran the party in the name of the central committee.[4]

The office of "General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia" was established in August 1932 and chaired the politburo and central committee meetings.[3] Tito, as general secretary, also had considerable power to influence the composition of the central committee and its politburo.[5] During the 1940s, Tito, the sitting general secretary, began abrogating the responsibilities of the politburo and centralising power in his own hands. According to the Serb Aleksandar Ranković, a member of both the politburo and the secretariat, exchanges between the Yugoslav party and its counterparts in Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland and the Soviet Union were hidden from the politburo. Upon asking Tito, at a politburo session, to publicise this information to the gathered attendance, Tito responded, "I am the secretary general of the party. I have the right to decide what to tell you and the others."[6] Also, the four party secretaries that made up the secretariat (Tito, Ranković, the Slovene Edvard Kardelj and the Montenegrin Milovan Djilas) had considerable influence on the politburo. They would often decide on policies before meetings and get the politburo to rubber stamp them.[7] This power relations would continue until the secretariat was abolished in 1966.[8]

The statute adopted by the 5th Congress in 1948, according to Ranković, "was by and large a copy of the Statute of the Soviet Communist Party".[9] As a result of the Tito–Stalin split, a conflict in which the Soviet political leadership accused the Yugoslav communists of breaking with communism, the LCY began questioning the Soviet model of governance and its suitability for the country.[10] The LCY began to move cagily in the direction of more democracy and the decentralisation of socio-political life.[11] This trend was confirmed first at the 5th Session of the Central Committee of the 5th Congress on 27 May 1952, and later that same year on the 6th Congress, held on 3–7 November 1952.[12] The congress changed the party's name from the "Communist Party of Yugoslavia" to the "League of Communists of Yugoslavia", according to Tito, "in view of the fact that the role of the Party at this stage of our social development changed to a certain extent ... the word Party is no longer adequate."[13] It argued that designating the LCY the leading role in society was wrong, and accordingly, stated "it mobilises and moves the broadest masses of the people to action by political and organisational means, so that its struggle and achievements make it a leader."[13] However, these changes did not affect the LCY's internal organisation or democratic centralism. The Politburo's name was changed to the Executive Committee, and the Secretariat was made responsible to it rather than to the Central Committee.[14]

The institutional framework established at the 6th Congress in 1952 lasted until the 5th Session of the Central Committee of the 8th Congress on 4 October 1966.[15] Earlier, at the 4th Session of the Central Committee of the 8th Congress on 1 July 1966, the LCY had purged Tito's presumed heir apparent Aleksandar Ranković, the Vice President of Yugoslavia and the head of the State Security Administration, for allegedly bugging Tito's bedroom.[16] To reduce the over-centralisation of power in key individuals, the same session established the Commission for the Reorganisation and Further Development of the LCY (CRFD–LCY), headed by Mijalko Todorović and composed of 40-members, to recommend party organisational reform.[17] The members of this commission proposed radical measures. The Slovene Mitja Ribičič proposed dropping democratic centralism, while the Macedonian Krste Crvenkovski talked of the possibility of a non-party democracy and the coming dissolution of the LCY. Tito responded in September by stating that both these proposals were off the table.[18]

At the 5th Session, the CRFD–LCY proposed abolishing the office of LCY general secretary and replacing it with the office of President of the LCY Central Committee. On their proposal, the Executive Committee and the Secretariat were abolished and replaced with two new bodies, the Presidency and a new Executive Committee. The presidency was to be headed by the president, while the executive committee was led by a secretary. The executive committee was responsible for executing the presidency's policies, while the presidency was responsible for formulating policies.[8] According to the CRFD–LCY, the reorganisation intended to "to put an end to, or at least to reduce to a minimum the danger of monopoly and concentration of competencies".[19] Moreover, in light of the decentralisation of socio-economic life that began with the Tito–Stalin split, the commission proposed to institute a fixed system of representation in the presidency and the executive committee. In the presidency, the League of Communists of Serbia (LC Serbia) and the League of Communists of Croatia (LC Croatia) were each represented with nine members, the League of Communists of Slovenia (LC Slovenia) and the League of Communists of Bosnia-Herzegovina (LC Bosnia-Herzegovina) each with seven members, League of Communists of Macedonia (LC Macedonia) and the League of Communists of Montenegro (LC Montenegro) each with six members and the League of Communists of Kosovo (LC Kosovo) and the League of Communists of Vojvodina (LC Vojvodina) had one representative each as well.[20] It was also made clear that both the presidency and the executive committee were accountable to the sessions of the LCY Central Committee.[21]

Todorović admitted that many commission members feared the new reorganisation would not halt the centralisation of power and that the presidency would replace the old executive committee. Confirming this fear was that the session reelected 17 of 18 members of the old executive committee to the new presidency. However, fourteen members of the reorganisation commission were also elected to the presidency.[22] However, the reorganisation of the old executive committee coupled with the decentralisation of the appointment of mid-level cadres from the centre to the republican leaderships considerably weakened the influence of the new presidency.[23] The delineation of functions between the presidency and the executive committee did not work as planned either, with the two bodies opting to convene joint sessions.[24] This, combined with the fact that term limits and elections, not the appointments of cadres, had become the norm, also weakened the central party authorities. [23]

At the LCY Central Committee's 7th Session on 1 July 1968, it accepted the commission's proposal to expand the presidency to "about fifty members" and establish a smaller non-political secretariat attached to it at the 9th Congress. Moreover, it adopted a proposal for its own self-abolishment and its replacement by a conference to be sent to the 9th Congress. These proposals were made since both the presidency and the executive committee proved too large, and because of this, informal coordination groups had been established to enforce policies.[25] At the same session, the Commission for Cadre Policy of the LCY Central Committee proposed abolishing the existing proportional representational formula approved by the 5th Session and institute equal representation of all republican leagues of communists in the presidency.[26] It further proposed changing the electoral method for presidency members. Arguing that "it is natural that the deciding role in the nomination of members for the [Presidency] of the LCY belongs to the republican organisations of the League of Communists", it proposed instituting a system in which candidates for the presidency were nominated by the republican central committees, elected by the republican congresses and verified by the federal congress. The intention was to turn the individuals in question from presidency members who had happened to come from a republic to "representatives of a republic in the central leadership".[27] The 7th Session approved these changes, and by the 9th Congress on 11–15 March 1969, the only remnant of an independent party centre was Tito in his function as LCY president. Until the 9th Congress, important decisions were no longer made at federal meetings but through ad-hoc meetings of republican representatives and interpersonal visits.[27]

The 9th Congress adopted the LCY Central Committee's suggestions regarding reorganisation. However, before the meeting, Tito had organised an informal meeting with the republican leaders to discuss the possibility of re-centralisation. Tito informed the congress that "we arrived at the mutual view that it is necessary that we strengthen the centre of the leadership of the League of Communists, and particularly the Executive Bureau".[28] The new executive bureau comprised the LCY president, two members from each republic and one from each autonomous province, while the presidency was expanded to 52 members. Only members of the presidency were eligible to serve in the executive bureau.[29] Again, some officials, such as Krste Crvenkovski, voiced fear that the new organ would re-centralise too much power in their hands; "in Macedonia, as in other republics, there were certain reservations about the new organisational forms of the leading organs of the LCY."[30] However, several rules made that impossible. For instance, all members had to resign from their political positions in the republics and the autonomous provinces. All members, bar Tito, were accountable to the party organisation that elected them, and the members had varied backgrounds that made close-knit collaboration more difficult. Moreover, the executive bureau also met at least once a week, and its responsibilities were so broad that it quickly became overloaded with work, making it difficult for its members to centralise power.[31] Following the 9th Congress, a report analysing the reorganisation reforms stated that the LCY was reduced to an alliance of republican and provincial organisations, and the presidency was reduced to a series of meetings of mutual information and consultation without any obligations to implement the policies agreed upon by its members. Moreover, the presidency failed, in accordance with the "Rules of Procedure on the Organisation and Activity of the Presidency of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia", to convene at least once a month, to meet at least once a month in the periods June to October 1969 and December 1969 to April 1970.[32]

At the 2nd Conference on 25–27 January 1972, the LCY was recentralised as a reaction to the Croatian Spring, a political conflict between the LCY and LC Croatia in which the former called for more autonomy for the Socialist Republic of Croatia within Yugoslavia. The executive bureau was reduced from fifteen to eight members.[33] Each member was given differentiated responsibilities, and while the branches elected the members, they were not supposed to be held accountable to them. The office, "Secretary of the Executive Bureau of the LCY Presidency", was also established to strengthen the bureau's ability to implement its decisions.[34] The 10th Congress, held on 27–30 May 1974, formalised these changes by amending the party statute. The congress abolished the conference and reestablished the LCY Central Committee, renamed the executive bureau the "Executive Committee of the Presidency of the LCY Central Committee".[35] All twelve members of the executive committee were also members of the presidency, blurring the differences between these two organs.[36] A system of executive secretaries of the presidency was established at the 10th Congress, and these officeholders could only serve two-period term limit.[37]

The executive committee was abolished and the presidency was reduced in size at the 11th Congress, held on 20–23 June 1978, and the stipulation that one-third of its members be renewed at every congress was removed.[38] This presidency was more similar to the earlier politburo and was tasked with having a political and directive role over party affairs. Each presidency was hereafter given a portfolio and headed a commission. A secretary and several executive secretaries were to be attached to the presidency and were responsible for "operational work and carrying-out policy" and had "concrete responsibility for specific areas of work".[39] Other amendments to the LCY statute also strengthened the central party leadership's authority, such as redefining democratic centralism. New lines stated that central party organs, which included the presidency, was "the unified political leadership of the entire League of Communists of Yugoslavia", and that each member of the presidency had equal responsibility for the implementation of central party policies. Moreover, the presidency was given the right to communicate and participate directly in the affairs of the republican organisation and direct communications with mass organisations.[39] At the same time, the new statute further clarified the right of the branches of republican, autonomous provinces and the LCY organisation in the Yugoslav People's Army (YPA) to elect and dismiss the members of the presidency.[37] The two-term limit for executive secretaries was abolished and replaced with a one-term limit.[37] None of the executive secretaries elected in 1974 were re-elected. The new statute clarified that the executive secretaries worked under the presidency's leadership by abolishing the executive committee.[37]

Not long after the 11th Congress, on 19 October 1978, the presidency adopted the "Rules of Procedure on the Organisation and Working Method of the Presidency" to institute and protect collective leadership. It established a new position, the Chairman of the Presidency of the LCY Central Committee.[41] In cooperation with the LCY secretary and members of the presidency, the new office would work under the instructions of the LCY president. Preparation and scheduling of meetings of the presidency were the chairman's responsibility. In the absence of the LCY president, the chairman presided over the presidency's meetings. When the LCY president was absent from meetings of the presidency, the secretary and chairman had to maintain contact with the officeholder to inform him about important questions and the results of the meetings.[41] All these responsibilities were formerly assigned to the secretary of the presidency (formerly, the secretary of the executive committee).[42] Furthermore, there was a one-year term limit for the chairmanship, and it rotated in an eight-year cycle among the leadership of the republics, the autonomous provinces and the LCY organisation in the YPA. Term limits were later expanded to include the secretary of the presidency, which had a two-term limit and also rotated in an eight-year cycle.[42]

Tito died on 4 May 1980. In his last years in power, he seldom participated in decision-making and delegated his authority to the presidency chairman.[43] At first, there was a degree of uncertainty about what to do with the office of LCY Central Committee president, but in June 1980, the presidency decided to abolish the office and delegate its authority to the Central Committee, and in between its sessions, to the presidency.[44] The same meeting renamed the office of chairman of the presidency to "President of the Presidency of the LCY Central Committee", and this office became the LCY party leader until its dissolution in 1990. Unlike the LCY president, the presidency president could only serve a one-year term and could not nominate members to the presidency—this authority was delegated to an internal commission of the presidency. These changes were designated as "temporary", and they were only ratified at the 12th Congress on 26–29 June 1982.[45]

Without Tito, the LCY became even more decentralised. With no centralising figure, the LCY became an amalgamation of its branches.[46] For instance, several republican league branches opposed the appointment of Dragoslav Marković to the presidency, but acquiescent "since it was the business of the Serbian Party."[47] Another example, during the 1981 protests in Kosovo, several officials admitted that they learnt first about the crisis through the newspaper rather than through official LCY channels.[48] In the run-up to the 12th Congress, several officials, the majority of them Serbs from the LC Serbia, proposed recentralising the LCY.[49] The LC Montenegro Central Committee proposed in November 1981 to divest the republican organisations of their right to elect members of the LCY Central Committee while others sought to standardise a term-limit system of two-years for the president of the presidency and his counterparts in the branches.[50] The 12th Congress did not approve these changes and instead formalised the "temporary" changes instituted after Tito's death.[51] The congress adopted rules that strengthened the LCY Central Committee vice-a-vice the presidency, making the former more dependent on support in the LCY Central Committee to enact policies.[52] At the 3rd Session of the Central Committee of the 12th Congress on 24 September 1982, LCY presidency president Mitja Ribičič noted that the presidency had become a "simple recorder of different attitudes and conditions in the republics and provinces."[53] The recentralisation debate continued at the 13th LCY Congress, held on 25–28 June 1986, but the status quo was retained.[54]

On 20–22 January 1990, the LCY convened its 14th Congress. With the fall of communism in 1989 in most of Eastern Europe as well as heightened conflict within the LCY on ethnic lines, the Slovene delegation left the congress on 22 January. LC Croatia supported the Slovenes and left as well. The congress went into recess on 22 January and reconvened only on 26 May. In the meantime, the LC Slovena, LC Croatia, and LC Macedonia had left the LCY. Several members of the presidency left as well, but some stayed on despite the decision of their republican branch, such as president Milan Pančevski, who refused to leave office before his term ended.[55] When reconvening on 26 May, the 14th Congress opted not to re-elect the presidency and the central committee and instead elected a provisional leadership, named Committee for the Preparation of the Democratic and Programmatic Renewal.[56] This committee was tasked with convening the 15th LCY Congress and renewing the party organisation. It failed in its task, and the committee―the last federal organ of the LCY―self-dissolved on 22 January 1991.[57]

When the party congress and the LCY Central Committee were adjourned, the presidency acted as the highest decision-making institution in the LCY and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It represented the party both domestically and abroad. This organ was initially headed by the leader of the LCY Central Committee until 1980. Still, from that year on until the dissolution of the presidency in 1990, it was led by the president of the presidency. The presidency was responsible for organising the work of the LCY Central Committee, with an emphasis on executing its program of work and making arrangements for its session. It was vested with the authority to make decisions regarding urgent measures in specific situations, as the LCY Central Committee authorised. Still, it had to promptly communicate the efforts undertaken to the LCY Central Committee, seeking approval for its action at the subsequent session. The work and activities of the presidency were subject to accountability by the LCY Central Committee, with direct accountability of the president, secretary, and members of the presidency to both the presidency and the LCY Central Committee.[58] The body was regulated by the "Statute of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia", the "Rules of Procedure on the Organisation and Working Method of the Presidency of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia" (from 1978 until its dissolution) and the "Rules of Procedure on the Organisation and Activity of the Presidency of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia" (from 1969 to 1978).[59]

The presidency acted as the political-executive organ of the LCY Central Committee based on the party congress' political guidelines and conclusions and the political platform, political standpoint, and assignments of the LCY Central Committee. The presidency was responsible for making appropriate political decisions to ensure the implementation of the policies adopted by Congress and the LCY Central Committee. It was the responsibility of the presidency to raise and discuss current ideological-political issues of the party, formulate and define policy, and direct the party's entire activity. As well as adjusting adopted political views and viewpoints, it was empowered to respond quickly to political developments and formulate specific political opinions on behalf of the party. While implementing policies and political stands, the presidency initiated, directed, and organised actions and adjusted ideological-political activities in coordination with the central and provincial committees and the Committee of the LCY Organisation in the Yugoslav People's Army. Additionally, it was responsible for assessing the political and ideological situation and putting into practice policies, standpoints, and decisions adopted by the party. It formulated policies, initiated and guided the party's actions in international affairs and was tasked with considering initiatives and proposals of other party organs. Other responsibilities included his responsibility to collaborate with central and regional committees and the LCY organisation's political-executive organs to exchange ideas and information on current ideological-political issues and plan attitudes and policies. It was responsible for communicating information internally and externally to the members of the LCY and the public at large, as well as reporting on current ideological-political issues and the activities of the central committee, its own, and the LCY in their entirety.[60]

The 1974 Yugoslav Constitution and the 10th LCY Congress made consensus decision-making the norm of the league's federal institutions.[61] The republics and autonomous provinces, which had a given amount of representatives in the LCY Presidency, negotiated with each other to formulate and set federal policies. When Tito was alive, a centralising figure could lead such work, but the system became more de-centralised with his death in 1980.[62] Despite its de-centralised nature, this system was still deemed to be in line with democratic centralism. At the 12th LCY Congress, Stane Dolanc criticised those wanted to return to the pre-1966 system, stating, "those who consciously wish to change the principle of democratic centralism into an instrument of centralism, of unitarism and etatism, [...] the negation of our basic programmatic goals and, in essence, counter-revolutionary activity."[62] Another presidency member, Hamdija Pozderac, also argued in favour of the LCY's interpretation of democratic centralism at the congress, stating, "the highest form of democratic centralism is the unanimity of a decision."[62] The need for consensus had become a cultural phenomenon. The "Rules of Procedure on the Organisation and Activity of the Presidency of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia", adopted in 1969, stated clearly that a simple majority could adopt some decisions while more important decisions required a two-thirds majority.[63]

On 19 October 1978, the presidency adopted the "Rules of Procedure on the Organisation and Working Method of the Presidency of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia" to regulate the body's "organisation and [it's]method of work".[64] The 1978 rules of procedure were based on the LCY Statute's Article 85 and contained 69 articles. It stipulates that the presidency "is a collective, democratic, and political body in which all members have equal rights and responsibilities for its entire work in all areas of its activities."[64] Except for the president of the LCY Central Committee, no members had the right to make decisions on behalf of the presidency between its sessions. However, article 32 of the rules of procedure does state, "If, between two sessions of the [Presidency], certain decisions are made at a restricted meeting in accordance with the statutory rights of the LCY president, the chairman, that is, the secretary of the [Presidency], will orally or in writing inform the other members of the [Presidency] at the next session. The information will be included in the session's protocol."[65] The remaining members had, according to article 34, "equal rights and duties, and, according to article 1, "equal rights and responsibilities" for the "entire work" of the presidency.[66] During a session, an ordinary member of the presidency could express his or her views freely and had the right to propose questions for consideration at sessions. However, such views could not be disseminated to other bodies outside or the public without the presidency's permission. A member was responsible for the work of the presidency as a whole, as well as the decisions taken by it. For the area for which each member was responsible, each member was held individually accountable.[67]

Article 30 of the 1978 rules of procedure states that at least two-thirds of members had to participate in a presidency session for the body to make a decision. If problems had to be discussed urgently, and the necessary number of members were unavailable, the presidency could make decisions if more than fifty per cent of members were present. For a decision to become valid, the members present had to produce a simple majority for the suggested proposal to go into force. The LCY President was the exception to this rule, and the officeholder (in this case, Tito) had the right to make binding decisions on behalf of the presidency without majority support in the aforementioned body. Members from republics or autonomous provinces that did not participate in the ordinary session of the presidency had the right to be informed as soon as possible about the issues discussed and their opinions needed to be expressed on the decisions adopted to go into force. If all three representatives from a republican branch were unable to attend a session of the presidency, their opinions were required before the decision would become effective. The member could approve the decision on behalf of the non-participating members if at least one representative from a republican branch were present. However, according to Article 32, if the LCY president summoned a session of the presidency, the officeholder could restrict the number of participants and inform the non-participants about the decision on a later, unspecified date.[68] At last, every decision of the presidency had to be taken by a public vote unless decided otherwise.[69]

From its inception and transformation from the politburo to the executive committee, this body was led by the general secretary of the central committee. With the 1966 reforms, the general secretary was abolished, and the office of president of the LCY Central Committee was established. This office led the work of the presidency until Tito's death on 4 May 1980. Two years before his death, on 19 October 1978, the presidency established the office of "Chairman of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia" and elected Branko Mikulić, a ethnic Croat from the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as its first officeholder. Even earlier, at the 2nd Conference on 25–27 January 1972, the office of "Secretary of the Executive Bureau of the Presidency of the LCY Central Committee" had been established, with the Slovene Stane Dolanc as its first officeholder.[70] The LCY president was the primus inter pares of these three offices, but in the aftermath of Tito's death the LCY Central Committee opted to abolish the office, and rename the chairmanship to "President of the Presidency of the Central Committee of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia".[45] There were no term limits for the LCY president, but the chairman (and later president of the presidency) had a one-year term limit while the secretary had a two-year term limit.[71]

As originally conceived, the chairman was to preside over sessions of the presidency when the LCY was prevented from doing so. Moreover, in conjunction with the presidency secretary, the relevant presidency member in charge of the specific policy area in question and the executive secretaries, the chairman could set the agenda for sessions of the presidency.[72] This was unlike the LCY president, who could set the agenda alone. Similarly to the LCY president, the chairman had the right to maintain communications with Yugoslav mass organisations and individuals in government and the federal Assembly. Despite this, the chairman (and later president of the presidency) was not a leader in the normal sense. The officeholder, per Article 43, had to maintain contact with individual presidency members and the presidency as a whole alongside the secretary of the presidency. The presidency president could only implement the work programme and decisions adopted by the LCY Central Committee and the presidency after consultation with individual members and, specifically, the secretary. According to scholar Slobodan Stanković, these stipulations intended to ensure that the president and secretary supervised each other, both of whom were also to be supervised by the presidency as a whole.[73]

The secretaries of the LCY Central Committee had different roles throughout the LCY's existence. Until 1966, the secretaries, simultaneously members of the politburo, dominated the decision-making process. From 1966 onwards, the roles of the secretaries were gradually weakened. The 5th Session of the Central Committee of the 8th Congress on 4 October 1966 abolished the LCY Secretariat and replaced it with a new LCY Executive Committee. This new committee had its own head, the "Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Presidency of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia", and was to be held accountable to the sessions of the LCY Central Committee.[74] This organ was abolished by the 9th LCY Congress on 11–15 March 1969.[27] The 2nd LCY Conference on 25–27 January 1972 reestablished the office of the secretary and the executive committee.[35] The 10th LCY Congress, held on 27–30 May 1974, instituted a system of one leading secretary and several executive secretaries.[37] Each executive secretary represented a republic, an autonomous province or the LCY organisation in the Yugoslav People's Army. While holding the formal title of "Secretary or Executive Secretary of the Presidency", none of the secretaries were members of the presidency, but rather ordinary members of the LCY Central Committee. The executive secretaries were accountable to the LCY secretary, and the LCY secretary was held accountable for all the work of the secretaries by the presidency.[73] Before the establishment of the chairmanship on 19 October 1978, the secretary was, under the terms of his functions, responsible for organising the supervision and implementation of the ideologies, decisions, and resolutions adopted by the presidency. The secretary was responsible for preparing the sessions of the presidency in agreement with the LCY president. Further, he coordinated the work of executive secretaries and performed other duties assigned by the presidency.[75] From then on, the secretary in conjunction with the chairman (and later the president of the presidency), shared power.[40]

From 1966 to 1969, the LC republican branches were represented in the LCY presidency according to a proportional representational formula, giving representatives from LC Serbia a majority in the organ. This formula was abolished and replaced by equal representation at the 9th LCY Congress, held on 11–15 March 1969, in which every republic were represented equally. In this new system, the autonomous provinces of Serbia were given representation in the presidency as well to represent their own provincial interests rather than those exclusive to Serbia.[26] Each republican LC branch had two representatives in the presidency and one ex officio member, while each autonomous provincial LC branch had one representative and one ex officio member. The LCY Organisation in the Yugoslav People's Army had one ex officio member. The ex officio members were leaders of the LC branch in question. For example, the ex officio member of the LC Croatia was the President of the LC Croatia Central Committee.[76]

To be eligible for election to the presidency, one had already to be a member of the LCY Central Committee. Candidates for membership in the presidency were selected based on the results of previous consultations conducted by specially elected commissions appointed by the presidency. These commissions were composed of the following individuals: the president of the presidency, the secretary of the presidency, and the presidents of the republican, autonomous provincial, and army branches. The party statute regulated the number of members in the presidency. As an example, the statute of the 12th LCY Congress provided that the presidency would consist of 23 members.[77] The members of the LCY presidency were nominated by the LC branch they represented. That is, a Macedonian member of the presidency was nominated by the party congress of the League of Communists of Macedonia and later formally elected by the LCY Central Committee. However, despite this institutional set-up, these members were not accountable to the branches and were to work for the interests of Yugoslavia, the federal state and not its constitutive members. The 10th LCY Congress clarified this, stating, "The working class needs a unified revolutionary vanguard ... such a role could not be performed by an organisation on the lines of a 'federal coalition' of republican and provincial organisations, or by a centralised 'supra-republic' organisation."[78]

Beginning with the reforms of the 5th Session of the Central Committee of the 8th Congress on 4 October 1966, voices were heard in favour of reducing the LCY's direct interference in government affairs. On 16 May 1967, the government was re-organised, and the Serb Petar Stambolić stepped down as president of the Federal Executive Council (the Yugoslav government) and was replaced by the Croat Mika Špiljak. In the reshuffle, everyone but three presidency members lost their government positions. The remaining three were Tito, Špiljak and the Bosnian Croat Rudi Kolak.[24] The pendulum would switch again at the 10th LCY Congress in 1974 when all 9 members of the Presidency of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (the state presidency) were elected to the party presidency, with each province and autonomous province represented and the LCY president an ex officio member.[79] The president of the LCY remained an ex-officio member of the state presidency until the 1988 constitutional amendments, when the party presidency lost its representational right.[80] At the 11th LCY Congress in 1978, the pendulum swang back. Only five individuals served concurrently in the state and party presidencies (Tito, the Croat Vladimir Bakarić, Petar Stambolić, the Kosovo Albanian Fadilj Hodža and Stevan Doronjski, a Serb from Vojvodina). Other presidency members held other state functions, such as the Montenegrin Veselin Đuranović who served as Federal Executive Council president and the Serb Nikola Ljubičić who served as the Federal Secretary of People's Defence.[81] The last three presidents of the Federal Executive Council (the Croat Milka Planinc, the Bosnian Croat Branko Mikulić and the Croat Ante Marković) were not members of the LCY presidency.[82]

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