The People's Radical Party ( sr, Народна радикална странка, Narodna radikalna stranka, abbr. НРС or NRS) was the
dominant ruling party of
Kingdom of Serbia and later
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Kingdom commonly refers to:
* A monarchy ruled by a king or queen
* Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy
Kingdom may also refer to:
Arts and media Television
* ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
from the late 1880s until 1928.
History
The founding of the party was related to the circle of Serbian youth followers of
Svetozar Marković
Svetozar Marković ( sr-Cyrl, Светозар Марковић, ; 9 September 1846 – 26 February 1875) was a Serbian political activist, literary critic and socialist philosopher. He developed an activistic anthropological philosophy wit ...
and
Nikola Pašić
Nikola Pašić ( sr-Cyrl, Никола Пашић, ; 18 December 1845 – 10 December 1926) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and diplomat who was a leading political figure for almost 40 years. He was the leader of the People's Radical ...
in
Zurich. The leaders of this group proposed a political
program
Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to:
Business and management
* Program management, the process of managing several related projects
* Time management
* Program, a part of planning
Arts and entertainment Audio
* Progra ...
in which they called for:
*change of constitution
*freedom of the press and
open politics
Open-source governance (also known as open governance and open politics) is a political philosophy which advocates the application of the philosophies of the open-source and open-content movements to democratic principles to enable any intere ...
*judicial independence
*reform of the education system
*enhanced local self-government
The first main assembly of the People's Radical Party was in July 1882 in
Kragujevac. The Radical's program, inspired by French Radicalism, was adopted, and
Nikola Pašić
Nikola Pašić ( sr-Cyrl, Никола Пашић, ; 18 December 1845 – 10 December 1926) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and diplomat who was a leading political figure for almost 40 years. He was the leader of the People's Radical ...
was elected as the president of the central committee. The Radical Party had its own daily (''Samouprava'', "Self-Government"), which was critical of the ruling monarchy, demanding democracy, public liberties, and liberal reforms of the bureaucratic system. The Radical leaders, mostly educated at home and abroad
Pera Todorovic,
Nikola Pašić
Nikola Pašić ( sr-Cyrl, Никола Пашић, ; 18 December 1845 – 10 December 1926) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and diplomat who was a leading political figure for almost 40 years. He was the leader of the People's Radical ...
,
Pera Velimirović,
Sima Lozanić,
Lazar Paču,
Jovan Djaja,
Andra Nikolić
Andra Nikolić ( Belgrade, Principality of Serbia, 5 October 1853 — Paris, France, 28 September 1918) was a Serbian politician, jurist, writer, literary historian and academic.
Biography
His parents were Josif Nikolić, a municipal clerk, and ...
,
Ranko Tajsić,
Lazar Dokić,
Raša Milošević,
Đura Ljočić,
Gliša Geršić,
Svetomir Nikolajević,
Kosta Taušanović
Kosta Taušanović (May 4, 1854 in Aleksinac – January 26, 1902 in Rijeka) was a Serbia, Serbian politician, minister and banker. He studied agriculture in Tábor (then in Austria-Hungary, today in the Czech Republic) and commerce in Hohenheim (G ...
, etc. with other urban and provincial elites (
Stojan Protić
Stojan Protić ( sr-cyrl, Стојан Протић; 28 January 1857 – 28 October 1923) was a Serbian politician and writer. He served as the prime minister of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes between 1918 and 1919, and again in 1920, ...
,
Adam Bogosavljević,
Aca Stanojević
Aleksa "Aca" Stanojević (Knjaževac, Principality of Serbia, 1852 - SFR Yugoslavia, 1947) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician, one of the founders and leaders of the People's Radical Party.
Stanojević was a member of the People's Radical Part ...
,
Dimitrije Katić,
Sava Grujić
Sava Grujić ( sr-cyr, Сава Грујић, ; 25 November 1840 – 3 November 1913) was a Serbian politician, statesman, general, army officer, and author, serving five times as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Serbia under two different mona ...
), were the first that successfully mobilized Serbian peasantry and the provincial middle classes (including teachers, peasant leaders and priests). Among others, Radicals attracted important intellectuals, diplomats, and university professors, such as
Milovan Milovanović
Milovan Đ. Milovanović also Milija Milovanović ( sr-cyr, Милован Ђ. Миловановић) (17 February 1863 – 18 June 1912) was a Serbian politician, diplomat, writer and constitutional lawyer, who served as 45th Prime Minister of Se ...
,
Milenko Vesnić Milenko (Cyrillic script: Миленко) is a name of Slavic origin, primarily used as a masculine given name. Notable people named Milenko include:
People named Milenko
As a given name
* Milenko Ačimovič (born 1977), Slovenian football pla ...
,
Mihailo Vujić,
Đorđe Simić
Đorđe S. Simić (28 February 1843, in Belgrade – 11 October 1921, in Zemun), was a Serbian politician and diplomat. He was twice Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Serbia.
Biography
Đorđe S. Simić was the son of Stojan Simić and the ...
,
Jovan Žujović
Jovan M. Žujović (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован M. Жујовић; 18 October 1856 – 19 July 1936) was a Serbian anthropologist, known as a pioneer in geology, paleontology and craniometry in Serbia.
Biography
After studying in Paris, he ret ...
.
In September 1883, the
Timok Rebellion
The Timok Rebellion ( sh, Timočka buna; ro, Răscoala Timoceană) was a popular uprising that began in eastern Serbia (now the region of the Timok Valley) on 28 September 1883, led by the People's Radical Party. It has been called the most imp ...
broke out in eastern Serbia when King
Milan Obrenović declared that peasants' arms should be confiscated by the army. He charged the Radicals that with their article ''Disarmament of the people's army'' in ''Samouprava'', they had encouraged the peasants to refuse to give up their weapons. The rebellion was set down in ten days. Most of the party head committee was captured in the aftermath, apart from Pašić himself and a few others, who escaped to the
Principality of Bulgaria. The régime sentenced many of these Radicals to death, including those who were in ''absentia''. However, after some time, amnesty was given to certain Radicals who agreed to enter Obrenović's government in 1887.
The Radicals were instrumental in the adoption of the 1888 Serbian Constitution, which established parliamentary democracy, almost all of the political programs. The parliamentary rule was introduced, rights were guaranteed as well as the freedom of citizens and local self-government. Radicals disposed of, after 1889, with almost 80 percent of the popular vote. The Radicals were ardent supporters of the unification of all Serb-inhabited lands in the Balkans and adopted the slogan "Balkans to the Balkan nations". In foreign policy, strongly anti-Austrian, it was mostly Russophile and Francophile, supporting the
Franco-Russian Alliance
The Franco-Russian Alliance (french: Alliance Franco-Russe, russian: Франко-Русский Альянс, translit=Franko-Russkiy Al'yans), or Russo-French Rapprochement (''Rapprochement Russo-Français'', Русско-Французско ...
and the
Triple Entente
The Triple Entente (from French '' entente'' meaning "friendship, understanding, agreement") describes the informal understanding between the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as well a ...
.
After the compromise with the Crown in 1901, the younger group within the People's Radical Party formed a dissident faction in 1901 that in 1905, after failed reconciliation efforts with Pašić emerged as a new political party, the "Independent Radical Party", led by
Ljubomir Stojanović
Ljubomir Stojanović ( sr-cyr, Љубомир Стојановић, sometimes mentioned as ''Ljuba Stojanovic'') (6 August 1860, Užice – 16 June 1930) was a Serbian politician, philologist and academic.
Biography
Stojanović was a philologist ...
and
Ljubomir Davidović
Ljubomir Davidović (24 December 1863 – 19 February 1940) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who served as prime minister (1919–1920 and 1924) of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later called Yugoslavia).
Biography
Davidovi ...
that was in power only in 1905 and 1906. After the Great War, Independent Radicals were transformed into the Republican and Democratic Party.
After the return of the
Karađorđević dynasty
The Karađorđević dynasty ( sr-Cyrl, Динасија Карађорђевић, Dinasija Karađorđević, Карађорђевићи / Karađorđevići, ) or House of Karađorđević ( sr-Cyrl, Кућа Карађорђевић, Kuća Karađ ...
to the throne of Serbia in 1903 (following the
May Overthrow
The May Coup ( sr, Мајски преврат, Majski prevrat) was a coup d'état involving the assassination of the Serbian King Alexander Obrenović and his consort Queen Draga inside the Royal Palace in Belgrade on the night of . This a ...
), under the newly elected king
Peter I Karađorđević, a single-chamber National Assembly was introduced, and the new 1903 Constitution was slightly revised version of the 1888 Constitution, annulled by
Aleksandar I Obrenović in 1894. Serbia became a parliamentary and constitutional monarchy. After the revolutionary government in 1903, the Radicals of Pašić formed several governments that began the important reforms of the nation.
The Radical governments led the Kingdom of Serbia through its Golden Age (1903-1914), as well as through the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. In 1917, the
Yugoslav Committee
Yugoslav Committee ( sh-Latn, Jugoslavenski odbor, sr-Cyrl, Југословенски одбор) was a political interest group formed by South Slavs from Austria-Hungary during World War I aimed at joining the existing south Slavic nations in ...
signed the
Corfu Declaration
The Corfu Declaration ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Krfska deklaracija, Крфска декларација) was an agreement between the prime minister of Serbia, Nikola Pašić, and the president of the Yugoslav Committee, Ante Trumbić, concluded on the ...
with Nikola Pašić, calling for the formation of a
South Slavic state. After the war, the
State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs was formed from lands previously part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire by the
Croatian Parliament
The Croatian Parliament ( hr, Hrvatski sabor) or the Sabor is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Croatia. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the people and is vested with legislative power. The Sab ...
and others.
Prince Alexander, citing the Corfu Declaration, declared the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...
. The Croatian Parliament voted to incorporate itself into the National Assembly of the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, and it was represented by it. The representatives of the National Assembly agreed to merge with the Kingdom of Serbia.
The Kingdom's prime ministers from 1918 to 1928 were all Serbian with the People's Radical Party holding the prime ministry for eight of the years. In the National Assembly, outdated electoral rules and Yugoslav police actions against opponents of the royal family
Elections
''TIME Magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...
'', February 23, 1925 favoured the Radical Party. For example, in the 1923 elections, the party received a quarter of the kingdom's vote, but census results from 1910 assigned Serbia a greater representation, and the Radical Party took just over a third of the Assembly's seats.
After Pašić's death in 1926, Aca Stanojević
Aleksa "Aca" Stanojević (Knjaževac, Principality of Serbia, 1852 - SFR Yugoslavia, 1947) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician, one of the founders and leaders of the People's Radical Party.
Stanojević was a member of the People's Radical Part ...
became the party's president. In 1929, King Alexander declared a personal rule banning the People's Radical Party and others. Certain members of the party entered into Alexander's governments, and Stanojević called for the end of the royal dictatorship and the return to parliamentary democracy and local self-government.
Radical Prime Ministers
Electoral performance
Kingdom of Serbia
Kingdom of Yugoslavia
References
Bibliography
*
* Alex N. Dragnich, ''Nikola Pašić, Serbia and Yugoslavia'', New Brunswick, New Jersey 1974.
* Alex N.Dragnich, ''The Development of Parliamentary Government in Serbia'', East European Monographs, Boulder Colorado 1978.
* Michael Boro Petrovich, ''The History of Modern Serbia 1804-1918'', 2 vols. I-II, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York 1976.
* Gale Stokes, ''Politics as Development. The Emergence of Political Parties in Nineteenth-Century Serbia'', Durham and London, Duke University Press 1990.
* Milan St.Protić, «The French Radical Movement and the Radical party in Serbia. A Parallel Analysis of Ideologies», in: Richard B. Spence, Linda L. Nelson (eds.), ''Scholar, Patriot, Mentor. Historical Essays in Honor of Dimitrije Djordjević'', East European Monographs, Boulder Colorado 1992.
{{Authority control
1881 establishments in Serbia
Agrarian parties in Serbia
Pan-Slavism
Political parties established in 1881
Political parties in the Kingdom of Serbia
Political parties in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Serbian nationalism
Yugoslavism