MILAN St. PROTIĆ BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND POPULISM POLITICAL IDEAS OF THE PEOPLE’S RADICAL PARTY IN SERBIA (The Formative Period: 1860’s to 1903) BETWEEN AND POPULISM DEMOCRACY , Protić . t M. S ISBN 978-86-7179-094-9 BELGRADE 2015 http://www.balkaninstitut.com MILAN St. PROTIĆ BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND POPULISM POLITICAL IDEAS OF THE PEOPLE’S RADICAL PARTY IN SERBIA (The Formative Period: 1860’s to 1903) http://www.balkaninstitut.com INSTITUTE FOR BALKAN STUDIES SERBIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND ARTS SPECIAL EDITIONS 133 MILAN St. PROTIĆ BETWEEN DEMOCRACY AND POPULISM POLITICAL IDEAS OF THE PEOPLE’S RADICAL PARTY IN SERBIA (The Formative Period: 1860’s to 1903) Editor-in-Chief Dušan T. Bataković Director of the Institute for Balkan Studies BELGRADE 2015 http://www.balkaninstitut.com Publisher Institute for Balkan Studies Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Belgrade, Knez Mihailova 35/IV Serbia www.balkaninstitut.com e-mail: [email protected] Reviewers Vojislav Stanovčić, member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Vojislav Pavlović, Institute for Balkan Studies, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Written in English by Author Design by Kranislav Vranić Printed by SVEN, Niš ISBN 978-86-7179-094-9 http://www.balkaninstitut.com Table of Contents Preface . 7 Prologue . 11 Chapter One THE ORIGINS . 17 Chapter Two THE HISTORY . 35 Chapter Three THE SOURCES . 61 Chapter Four THE CHARACTERISTICS . 83 Chapter Five THE STRUCTURE . 103 Chapter Six THE LEADERS . 121 EPILOGUE . 149 Bibliography. 173 Index . 185 http://www.balkaninstitut.com http://www.balkaninstitut.com PREFACE hen, upon my return from Bern, Switzerland, it was suggested to me Wto consider the publication of my Ph.D. dissertation1 in its original English version, frankly I was caught by a huge surprise. I wrote that manu- script almost thirty years ago and haven’t looked at it ever since. Nostalgia or not, but I liked the idea. After rereading the text, I realized that it needed additional work. Some parts needed to be revised; new chapters had to be added; certain passages had to be rewritten. As it often happens, it turned out that this task required much more time and effort than I had initially thought. And I enjoyed every minute of it. Memories started to pour back. I stepped on the soil of the USA for the first time in the summer of 1979 determined to continue my studies at an American university, despite the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about the American educational system. In my junior year at the Belgrade Law School, I’d decided to take a trip overseas. First I visited Harvard where I met Dr. Adam Ulam, a political scientist and Sovietologist; then I went to Stanford, where I talked to Dr. Wayne Vucinich, a Balkan historian, and to Hoover, where I was received by Dr. Milorad Drachkovitch, Fellow and Ar- chives Director. My last stop before returning home was UCSB. After gradu- ation and taking the GRE and TOEFL tests, I managed to get enrolled in the graduate program in History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In all fairness, that was made possible due to the most generous support and 1 I received my doctorate in History from the University of California, Santa Bar- bara, in 1987. My Ph.D. advisor was Dr. Dimitrije Djordjević; the chairman of the Ph.D. Committee was Dr. Joachim Remak, and the remaining two members were Dr. Nancy Gallagher and Dr. Peter Merkl. http://www.balkaninstitut.com 8 Milan St. Protić warmest recommendation provided by Dr. Dimitrije Djordjević, my dear „čika Mita“,2 a professor over there, my future teacher, mentor and guru. He was a Serb by origin, a democrat, anti-communist and patriot, a former in- mate of a Nazi concentration camp,3 who had, persecuted by Tito’s regime,4 fled from Yugoslavia in 1970 in order to take up a permanent teaching po- sition at UC Santa Barbara. I arrived in California in late October of 1980. The following six and a half wonderful years I spent studying and working with him. In Communist Yugoslavia, notions like political parties, free elec- tions, freedom of public speech, democracy, civil liberties etc. were highly unpopular, if not entirely prohibited. Since I was drawn to politics due to my family background and personal curiosity, history, čika Mita and Santa Barbara seemed like a perfect choice. I made up my mind about the topic of my doctoral dissertation even before I arrived in the USA. My great-grandfather Stojan Protić5 was among the leaders of the People’s Radical Party and its chief ideologue from its very inception (1881) until the early 1920s. Frankly, this was quite an inspiration for a young man of my character and interests. Coming from Law School, having a solid grasp of political, constitutional and legal sciences (albeit it mostly Marxist), this particular theme appeared to me as an excellent mix- ture of history and political theory. Fortunately, my Ph.D. advisor immedi- ately agreed to my proposal. This was realized thanks to the unique gesture of Mr. Petar Dimitrijević,6 who provided an initial grant so that I could pursue my dream of studying in the United States. Later, I got a job as a teaching and research assistant and was able to finance both my studies and my living in California. Most of the research for this book was done: in Paris, in the Archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Quai d’Orsay), the National li- brary and the Library of the Faculty of Political Sciences; in Belgrade, in 2 „Čika“ is a Serbian word for uncle; „Mita“ is a nickname for Dimitrije (Dimitry). 3 Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp was located in Upper Austria. He was imprisoned there in 1942/43. 4 He was sentenced to four years of prison as a member of the royalist resistance movement in Yugoslavia during WW2. 5 Serbian and Yugoslav politician, journalist, minister and prime minister (1857–1923). 6 Another Serbian political emmigrant who had escaped Communism in 1945. The son of a general loyal to the Monarchy and a Harvard graduate, Mr. Dimitrijević made a fortune in the pharmaceutical industry. I met him in Cavtat, a sea resort near Dubrovnik(Croatia) in 1977 upon his first visit to Yugoslavia. http://www.balkaninstitut.com Between Democracy and Populism 9 the Serbian Archives, Archives of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the National Library of Serbia; at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford, CA; and at the UCSB Library (the Nikic Special Collection). The actual writing process took a little over a year. Encouraged by my colleagues from the History Department,7 I decided to write in English rather than to write in my native Serbian and translate it into English. Of course, some serious proof-reading was necessary. Still, the language and style were not of the highest quality. It was pretty obvious that it was written by a foreigner. I took my Ph.D. written and oral exams in November 1983. In 1984/85 I spent eight months doing research in Paris, France. I submitted the final version of my dissertation in February 1987 and was awarded my Ph.D. in History from UC Santa Barbara on March 21 of the same year. In 1991/92, I was invited to take a visiting professorship at the His- tory Department at UCSB, teaching several courses in modern European and Balkan history as well as a seminar for graduate students of history and political sciences. I was back to my school, my department, my place. It felt as a homecoming. Since 1985, I have been employed in the capacity of Research Assis- tant and Research Fellow at the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Belgrade. 7 Nick Vucinich, Lenny Friedman, Elpida Hadjidaki, Bill Wrightson, Tahib el- Baloul, Kim Francev, Eric Knudsen, Bernd Fischer, Linda Nelson, Rick Spence, Francine Bloom and Greg Graves. http://www.balkaninstitut.com http://www.balkaninstitut.com PROLOGUE adicalism1 was a political ideology of 19th-century Europe. It belonged Rto the corpus of liberal thought and stood on its left wing2. In the spec- trum of political ideologies, it could also be placed on the right side of So- cialism3. In its later stages, Radicalism became increasingly conservative, moving to the center-right of the political landscape in most countries where radical parties survived on the political stage throughout the 20th century. In some countries in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Oceania,4 Radicalism branched out into separate political parties, whereas in others it remained within the formal framework of liberal parties.5 1 Derived from the Latin “radix”(root). Not to be confused with the contemporary use of the term “radicalism”, denoting extremism or fundamentalism. 2 An interesting example in this respect is the Liberal-Radical Party of Switzer- land. In German they call themselves the Liberals (Die Liberalen), while in French the same party is referred to as the Liberals-Radicals (les libéraux-radicaux). See: Clive H. Church, The Politics and Government of Switzerland, Palgrave Macmil- lan, London, 2004. 3 In France the full name of the party was: The Republican, Radical and Radical- Socialist Party (Le Parti républicain, radical et radical-socialiste). 4 Political parties under this name exist(ed) in France, Luxembourg, the Nether- lands, Denmark, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Switzerland, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ar- gentina, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, India and New Zealand. Between 1854 and 1877, there was a wing within the Republican Party of the US that was called the “Radicals” or “Radical Republicans”.