Democratic Party Демократска странка Demokratska stranka | |
|---|---|
| Chairman | Milan Grol (last) |
| Founder | Ljubomir Davidović |
| Founded | 15 February 1919 |
| Banned | 1946 |
| Merger of | Serbian Progressive Party People's Party National Progressive Party Croat-Serb Coalition |
| Succeeded by | Democratic Party (Serbia) (1990, self-proclaimed) |
| Headquarters | Belgrade |
| Ideology | Liberalism Yugoslavism |
| Political position | Centre |
The Yugoslav Democratic Party, State Party of Serbian, Croatian and Slovene Democrats and Democratic Party, also known as the Democratic Union was the name of a series of liberal political parties that existed in succession in the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). [1]
The Yugoslav Democratic Party (Slovene : Jugoslovenska demokratska stranka) was a Slovenian liberal political party, founded in June 1918 from the merge of all three Slovene national liberal parties that had been formed since the 1890s in the Slovene-speaking parts of Austria-Hungary: the National Progressive Party in Carniola, the National Party in Styria, and the National Progressive Party in Gorizia and Gradisca. Prominent members included Ivan Tavčar, Ivan Hribar, Albert Kramar, Gregor Žerjav, and Milko Brezigar.
In the Spring of 1919, in Sarajevo, the State Party of Serbian, Croatian and Slovene Democrats (Serbian : Државотворна странка демократа Срба, Хрвата и Словенаца, Državnotvorna stranka demokrata Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca) is created by a merger of the Yugoslav Democratic Party with Serbian and Croatian liberal parties, namely the Independent Radical Party led by Ljubomir Davidović, the fractions of Serbian Progressive Party, the People's Party of Croatia and the Svetozar Pribićević's Croat-Serb Coalition, as well as fractions of Montenegrin People's Party led by Andrija Radović.
The elected president of the party was Ljubomir Davidović, also a president of the Assembly and a mayor of Belgrade.
The party won the largest number of deputies in the first elections held in 1920: they could occupy 92 of the 419 seats in the constituent assembly. [2] From 1 January 1922 on, they participated in the government of Prime Minister Nikola Pašić of the People's Radical Party. Together with the People's Radical Party, the Democrats were the main supporters of the constitution passed on 28 June 1921. [3] Members of the Democratic Party were significantly involved in the foundation of the Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists (ORJUNA) in 1921. [4] In the 1923 elections, the party's number of deputies in the National Assembly dropped to 51. [5] In May 1924, the Democrats joined the Oppositional Bloc against the Pašić government, appealing for a democratic Yugoslavia and calling for a fair share in the government for Croatians and Slovenes. [6]
In early 1924, Prime Minister Pašić succeeded in winning the support of some Democratic deputies around Svetozar Pribićević, to reject especially the Croatian demands for more influence. Therefore, the conflict between Pribićević and party leader Ljubomir Davidović heatened. While Pribićević intransigently persisted on the principle of the unitary Yugoslavia, Davidović favoured moderation and concessions considering the Croatian demands. Hence, Pribićević and fourteen fellow lawmakers left the Democratic Party and founded the Independent Democratic Party, which readily joined a "National Bloc" coalition with the Radical Party of Prime Minister Pašić. [6]
The Slovenian, Croatian, Croatian Serb and Bosnian sections, led by Svetozar Pribićević, moved to the latter. The Democratic Party thus shrunk mostly to Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro, while in the former Austro-Hungarian areas of the state, the Independent Democratic Party prevailed.
The Democratic Party was in and out of government, either independently or as part of a coalition, until 1929 when King Alexander abolished the Vidovdan Constitution and created a personal dictatorship, changing the name of the country to Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The Democratic Party remained in opposition until World War II.
After Davidović's death in 1940, Milan Grol took over the presidency of the party.
During the invasion of Yugoslavia by Nazi Germany in 1941, Grol and most of the party leadership fled to the United Kingdom. After the war, the Democratic Party called for a boycott of communist-organized elections in 1945. The Communist Party (KPJ) led by Josip Broz Tito banned the Democratic Party in 1946.
| Year | Leader | Popular vote | % of popular vote | Position | # of seats | Seat change | Position | Coalition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | Ljubomir Davidović | 319,448 | 19.9% |  1st | 92 / 419 | 92 | 1st | - |
| 1923 | 400,342 | 18.4% |  3rd | 51 / 312 | 41 | 3rd | - | |
| 1925 | 279,686 | 11.8% |  3rd | 36 / 315 | 15 | 3rd | - | |
| 1927 | 381,784 | 16.4% | 2nd | 59 / 315 | 23 | 2nd | - | |
| 1931 | Banned | 0 / 370 | 59 | N/A | - | |||
| 1935 | 1,076,345 | 37.4% | 2nd | 67 / 370 | 67 | 2nd | United Opposition | |
| 1938 | 1,364,524 | 44.9% | 2nd | 67 / 370 | 0 | 2nd | United Opposition | |
| 1945 | Milan Grol | Election boycott | 0 / 354 | 67 | N/A | - | ||
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" was its colloquial name due to its origins. The official name of the state was changed to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" by King Alexander I on 3 October 1929.
Puniša Račić was a Montenegrin Serb leader and People's Radical Party (NRS) politician. He assassinated Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) representatives Pavle Radić and Đuro Basariček and mortally wounded HSS leader Stjepan Radić in a shooting which took place on the floor of the Yugoslav parliament on 20 June 1928. He was tried and handed a sixty-year sentence, which was immediately reduced to twenty years. He served most of his sentence under house arrest and was killed by the Yugoslav Partisans in October 1944.
This article gives an overview of liberalism in Croatia. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it isn't necessary so that parties labeled themselves as a liberal party.
This article gives an overview of liberalism in Slovenia. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ means a reference to another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it isn't necessary so that parties labeled themselves as a liberal party.
Svetozar Pribićević was a Croatian Serb politician in Austria-Hungary and later Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He was one of the main proponents of Yugoslavism and a federalized South Slavic state which would later turn out to be Yugoslavia. However, he later became a bitter opponent of the same policy that was promoted by King Alexander I.
The Cvetković–Maček Agreement, also known simply as the Sporazum in English-language histories, was a political compromise on the internal divisions in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It was settled on August 26, 1939, by Yugoslav prime minister Dragiša Cvetković and Vladko Maček, a Croat politician. The agreement established the Banovina of Croatia, drawn to include as many ethnic Croats as possible, which effectively created a Croatian sub-state in Yugoslavia, a demand of Croat politicians since the 1918 founding of Yugoslavia.
The People's Radical Party was the dominant ruling party of Kingdom of Serbia and later Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from the late 1880s until 1928.
Constitutional Assembly elections were held in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on 28 November 1920. The Democratic Party emerged as the largest faction, winning 92 of the 419 seats. Deputies are elected by secret ballot, in a direct manner, by the electoral quotient system. The 1920 elections were the first democratic elections in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Shortly after the election, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia was banned by the authorities.
Ljubomir Davidović was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who served as prime minister of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
The Independent Democratic Party was a social liberal political party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It was established by Svetozar Pribićević as a breakaway faction of the Democratic Party in 1924. It was formed by three different groups: by far the largest group were the Serbs from the areas of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, that is Croatian, Bosnian and Vojvodina Serbs, with the prevalence of the first. The second most influential group were Slovene centralist liberals. The third group was composed by Croat liberals, mostly from Dalmatia and Zagreb.
Milan Grol was a Serbian literary critic, historian and politician. He was also director of the National Theatre of Serbia.
Albin Prepeluh was a Slovenian left wing politician, journalist, editor, political theorist and translator. Before World War I, he was the foremost Slovene Marxist revisionist theoretician. After the War, he became one of the most persistent advocates of Slovenian autonomy within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and, together with Dragotin Lončar, the ideologist of the democratic reformist faction of Slovenian Social Democrats. In the late 1920s, he evolved towards agrarianism. He was also known under the pseudonym Abditus.
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Yugoslavism, Yugoslavdom, or Yugoslav nationalism is an ideology supporting the notion that the South Slavs, namely the Bosniaks, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes, but also Bulgarians, belong to a single Yugoslav nation separated by diverging historical circumstances, forms of speech, and religious divides. During the interwar period, Yugoslavism became predominant, and then official ideology of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. There were two major forms of Yugoslavism in the period: the regime favoured integral Yugoslavism promoting unitarism, centralisation, and unification of the country's ethnic groups into a single Yugoslav nation, by coercion if necessary. The approach was also applied to languages spoken in the Kingdom. The main alternative was federalist Yugoslavism which advocated the autonomy of the historical lands in the form of a federation and gradual unification without outside pressure. Both agreed on the concept of National Oneness developed as an expression of the strategic alliance of South Slavs in Austria-Hungary in the early 20th century. The concept was meant as a notion that the South Slavs belong to a single "race", were of "one blood", and had shared language. It was considered neutral regarding the choice of centralism or federalism.
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