deologically speaking, the initiators of founding all the political parties in Serbia were
young intellectuals educated abroad. The ideology of political liberalism was brought to Serbia
by young knowledgeable people educated in the West: Milovan Janković, Jevrem Grujić,
Vladimir Jovanovic, Stojan Bošković, Filip Hristić, Đorđe Cenić and many more who published
and initiated liberal-democratic ideas during the Peter Assembly in 1848. Only with St Andrea
Assembly in 1858 did the Serbian Civil rebirth begin. During this assembly two political groups
finally divided: the liberals and the conservatives. The most important attainment of the St
Andrea Assembly in 1858 was the Act of National Assembly. This act initiated the introduction
of the representative system in Serbia. In political history, the period from 1858 to 1869
represents the birth of the representative system in Serbia.
The introduction of the representative system in Serbia by the Constitution of 1869
created the necessary p...olitical preconditions for organizing modern political parties. Regular
political elections and participation of the Parliament in the legislative process resulted in a
easier binding of the like-minded politicans with their political liders to whom it was important
to strenghten their bonds with their electors. The fact that the constitutional elections took place
every three years and that the Assembly took place every year led to the strenghening of the
political parties in the state, since more thriving layers of society started entering the National
Assembly, the delegates who infuenced the political life. After the Constitution of 1869 was
enforced, the liberals are gathered under Jovan Ristić, and later the young oppositional
conservatives are gathered. In the same time a third political party emerged, the supporters and
followers of Svetozar Marković. The organized political parties did not emerge immediately
after the Regent’s Constitution although it guaranteed a selection of political rights and freedom
necessary for the emergence of the political parties, such as voting right, the freedom of speech
and the freedom of press. This poses a question why did it never happen? The answer is to be
looked into the intention of the Regency and later Regent Milan to unable the education of the
political parties. In a situation when the Regency was closer to conservative than liberal ideas, it
was hard to discuss organized political parties. The non-existence of political discipline as well
as well political programs adversely affected the emergence of modern political parties.
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Assembly Elections of October 1874 had a great impact on the history of political parties
in Serbia. After the elections, a few political parties emerged in the Assembly: St Andrea
Liberals under Jevrem Grujić, Libears under Ristić, Conservatives under Jovan Marinović, the
beginnings of Young Conservatives and People’s Party of the future Radicals. The organizing of
political parties was sped up by young intellectuals gathered round the paper “Videlo” and
connected with the People’s party in the National Assembly. The beginning of 1881 saw the
emergence of modern organized political parties in Serbia: People’s Radical Part, Progressive
Party and Liberal Party. Until that period delegates in the National Assembly mainly performed
individually, and after 1881 they perform in accordance with political program, respecting
political discipline. In view of organization and the functioning, the radicals went further,
because they realized that organization is of utter importance for successful functioning and
development of political parties. Pera Todorovic was given most credit for organizing the
Radical Party. His organization contributed a round of hierarchical organizational units starting
with local committees in every small town, counties, and to the Main Committee as the supreme
organ of the party. Speaking about organization of the other two political parties it could be said
that they too emerged with statues similar to the radical one. However, they never occupied such
number of members as the Radical Party.
The main characteristic of the political life in Serbia during the 80s of the 19th century
consisted of bitter fights between the Radical and the Progressive Party in which King Milan
Obrenovic sided with the Progressive Party. He was the reason why the radicals, although during
the period 1882-1883 in majority, they never succeeded to come to power nor for the years to
come. Dedicated to unable radicalism in Serbia, Milan showed even greater resistance toward the
liberal reforms and greater affection toward emergence of personal regime. After the Timok
Rebellion many radical leaders were convicted for many years, and the political leader Nikola
Pasic was in emigration. Among the radicals, involving even those in the custody, slowly
awareness was raised that the accord with the crown was necessary. Treaty with the radicals was
initiated by King Milan so as to reinforce his personal strength, decreased in the war with
Bulgaria. Although hungry for power, the radicals denounced the king’s offer in Nis at the
beginning of 1886. Radical leaders signed a treaty with liberals instead of progressives in 1887.
The King did not have many possibilities, either to give radicals power and concede defeat or to
draw back. Radical-liberal coalitional government gave great attention to the constitutional
problem solving. Due to the fact that the first coalitional government was short-lived, it did not
solve any problems. Similar situation happened with the first homogenous radical government
that did not succeed anything more than its program, due to the fact that it was smothered by the
King Milan’s party. The Constitutional reform of 1888 had a big impact on political and
constitutional life of Serbia. The multiannual struggle of the People’s Radical Party was crowned
by passing the constitution by the principle of majority.
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The position of the Radical Party is changed from the ground, because it came to power
and made its own cadre consisting of young intellectuals. Oversight over the whole work of the
radical government from 1889 to 1892 shows that the radicals on the one hand showed great
effort to introduce the constitution into the political life of Serbia, and on the other to limit the
ruler’s power. However, it is important not to forget the fact that the parliamentary regime on
whom so many radicals insisted was more and more changing into a totalitarian one-party
system. The parliamentary system that enabled the absolute power of the Radical Party in all
state institutions was short-lived. King Alexander had an immense wish to stop as soon as
possible with all the new-laid things that were introduced by the parliamentary system and that is
the reason he was constantly fighting with the political parties and very frequently insisted on
coup. In 1894 he suspended the 1888 Constitution and reenacted the 1869 one. After that, a
regime based on self-will came to power, which lasted until 1901, year when King Alexander
passed a new constitution. Political life in time of self-willed regime of king Alexander was very
tough, because the ruler denounced the parties with the basic idea: “to renounce with
parliamentarism if we wish to arrange this state properly”. The last Obrenovic tried to denounce
the existence of the Constitution, the government and the National Assembly by conducting
various experiments. His “neutral” governments, which consisted of unforced political
personnel, were under his impact. The whole political system turned round one political person,
the king, which succeeded in dividing and manipulating the political parties. Neutralizing the
People’s Radical Party dominance could not have lasted any longer, due to the fact that it was
impossible that the party with the biggest support be in opposition any longer. The king’s
wedding to Draga Masin represents a turning point in political life of Serbia. The shackles of the
self-willed regime started to diminish, because the king wanted “to please the parties and the
nation, so that they would accept the queen.” The king’s compromise with the strongest party in
the country did not achieve results, due to the fact that among them existed huge differences in
view of “state conceptions”. The radicals advocated for parliamentary monarchy in which the
power would belong to the most popular party, whereas the crown advocated the constitutional
monarchy in which the ruler would be a puppet in enforcing the power of the National
Assembly. Co-operational politics between the king and the radicals were short-lived, since it
turned out that the representatives of the two opposite state conceptions were incapable of
reaching an agreement. Shorty, the king realized that the treaty with the radicals was impossible
to be kept and decided to return to previous politics, as before signed by the treaty in 1901. The
renewed return to the self-willed regime sped up the preparations of the conspirators that in the
night of May 28th/June 10th/ May 29th June 11th staged a coup.
