The Party of Democratic Action (SDA) was founded on 26 May 1990 in Sarajevo, as a "party of Muslim cultural-historic circle". It was a realisation of Alija Izetbegović's idea of an Islamic religious and national party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Many members of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including imams, took part in the party's foundation. Alija, who was chosen as its chairman, tried to resolve disputes between the Muslim nationalist Islamists led by Omer Behmen and the left-wing Muslims led by Adil Zulfikarpašić.[10] The party has its roots in the old Yugoslav Muslim Organization, a conservative Muslim party in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Yugoslav Muslim Organization was a successor of Muslimanska Narodna Organizacija (Muslim National Organization), a conservative Muslim party founded in 1906 during the Austro-Hungarian era. The Muslim National Organization was itself a successor of the conservative Muslim "Movement for waqf and educational autonomy" (Pokret za vakufsko-mearifsku autonomiju) that goes back to 1887.
The SDA achieved considerable success in elections after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. It founded the newspaper Ljiljan. The party remains the strongest political party among the Bosniak population in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In November 2000, the party was defeated by the Social Democratic Party and other parties gathered into the "Alliance for Change", and found itself in opposition for the first time since its creation.[24][clarification needed] After the 2022 general election, the SDA became once again the largest party in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The party has branches in Slovenia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Croatia and the Sandžak region of Serbia. One of the goals of the party, outside Bosnia and Herzegovina, is to represent and defend the interests of Bosniaks and other Muslim South Slavs in the entire Balkan region. In Montenegro, the SDA merged with smaller Bosniak and Slavic Muslim parties to create the Bosniak Party.
The Party of Democratic Action is the primary stronghold for right-orientated Bosniaks, especially for nationalists, and conservatives. The party has been also described as secularist by some researchers.[25][26]Islamist ideologies exist in the party but tends to represent itself mainly among the elite apparatus of the party.[27][28] The party supports the centralization of the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[29] On foreign stances they also tend to be atlanticist and supportive of the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to NATO and the European Union.[28][19]
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Eralp, Doğa Ulaş (2012). Politics of the European Union in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Between Conflict and Democracy. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. ISBN9780739149478.
Farmer, Brian R. (2010). Radical Islam in the West: Ideology and Challenge. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN9780786462100.
Krieger, Joel (2012). The Oxford Companion to Comparative Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780199738595.
Perica, Vjekoslav (2004). Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780195174298.
Šedo, Jakub (2013). "The party system of Bosnia and Herzegovina". In Stojarová, Vera; Emerson, Peter (eds.). Party Politics in the Western Balkans. New York: Routledge. ISBN9781135235857.
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