Much has been written and more can be written. Several previous discussions here have had statements along the lines of "You asked a question that I consider one of the hardest for this sub to answer". Unfortunately, I haven't found a single previous discussion that talks about all of Tito's setup and approach, the 1974 constitution, and the economy. Much less one that talks about pre- and post-Tito times: some people discussed them, and I found it useful in a compare and contrast way. So I'm sorry that this reply has more pointers than I would like in a FAQ Finder post.

Some information is here . Most of the pertinent replies were by /u/odjebibre , /u/Fucho , and /u/commiespaceinvader . If you have a limited amount of time or patience, you could get a general idea from this, though I liked the details from other discussions.

This : commiespaceinvader again. For this particular question, I think it's OK to skim up to "After the end of the war". (Mind you, what he wrote before that is valuable in understanding Tito; I think it just doesn't apply to this question.) roamingspirit98's reply summarizes Tito's overall approach.

This : later the same day, commiespaceinvader provided mostly details towards the end, the 1974 constitution and post-Tito moves.

This : HarryCochrane went into economic / development factors that affected the Yugoslav disintegration. For more details on how they played into the disintegration, see paragraph 'Now, a bit on "who exploited whom"' and the next by Fucho here .

(If you want to dig into the fall, which I know is past your time period, Fucho compiled links here .)

I can't find itFound it: to address "everything fell apart so quickly after his death", you could see Fucho here , though again it's past the Tito era.

This is not to discourage discussion. More questions, data, and debate are welcome.