1974 Yugoslav Constitution

The 1974 Yugoslav Constitution was adopted on 21 February 1974 as the fundamental law of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, remaining in force until the country's breakup in 1992. With 406 original articles it was one of the longest constitutions in the world, and it established an intricate indirect electoral procedure that ran from local labor and political organizations through commune-level assemblies to provincial and republican assemblies, which in turn selected the members of the Federal Assembly's two equal chambers. It reduced the collective Federal Presidency from twenty-three to nine members, giving each republic and province equal representation, and it proclaimed Josip Broz Tito president for life. Kosovo and Vojvodina, the two constituent provinces of Serbia, received substantially increased autonomy, including a de facto veto power inside the Serbian parliament. The constitution codified the principles of socialist self-management and recognized a right of self-determination for the Yugoslav nations, though its provisions on unilateral secession remained ambiguous, a tension that later fed the country's violent breakup.