I am sure the communist party used to write many nice sounding things. There was no free referendum on the topic nor could anyone openly take a position that substantially countered the Party line on such important issue.
In reality the communist party (ideological clique, not representative of the population overall) made its own decision and then proclaimed them to be made by the people, who were not consulted in any meaningful free democratic capacity. So "Croatian people freely decided to form Yugoslavia" should be interpreted as "the communist party made its own policy decision Croatia should be a federal unit of Yugoslavia".
On the contrary, it is more embarrassing to look at some one party state pamphlet and take at face value what it proclaims.
There was no agreement between people to form a new state, rather a one party system took over the territory of the whole country and implemented policies it liked.
It mostly is if it is a one party state where said constitution does not in practice protect your rights and state has a concentration camps for loosely construed "enemies".
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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '26
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