Vidovdan Parliament, Role of Pasic

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The title of The Constitutional, Parliamentary and Hereditary Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes seemed to hint at the Westminster model. However, Pasic was intensely patriarchal about the connection between the people and the king. o The cabinet stood immediately under the king 33 prefectures created, each with a Prefect appointed by the King. As such the Serbs had dominance in all prefectures except in Slovenia Moreover, Electoral Law of June 1922 meant that constituencies were based on pre-war electoral figures, ignoring the huge losses of Serbians during WWI The King allowed thousands of White Russian soldiers to stay in Belgrade, prompted outcry concerning his foreign policy Relations between Radic and Pasic worsened over Pasics refusal to recognise the creation of an independent Croatia Radic was a republican leader in a monarchical state: something of an enigma Radic argued Croatia was not part of the Balkans, neither was Bosnia-Herzegovina

Democrat Party (of Pasic) began to break up following increasing tensions between Serbs and Croats Pasic resigned to form an all-Radical administration, called for elections in 1923 and did very well. The Croatian Republican Peasant Party (CRPP) of Radic did well as well o Pasics gamble backfired, did not weaken the Democrats enough but now faced increasing opposition. 1924, King Alexander asks Davidovic to form a coalition government, Democrats, Slovene Peoples Party and the Yugoslav Muslim Organisation, eventually 4 CRPP members join as well.

However, Radic went to Moscow and affiliated himself with the

Communist party there leading to generals in the Yugoslav government to refuse to work with him Pasic took advantage and declared the CRPP an illegal party and had them all arrested The following elections in 1925 were held in a state of violence and corruption The radicals gained a strong grip on the assembly Pasic argued that Radic was happy to accept the security of the Yugoslav state but not accept the Serbian losses that had achieved it o Enraged the military o Damaged Pasics ideals for excluding the military from the court

Radics Re-Imagining, Death of Pasic

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From prison Radic made an astonishing about-turn, accepting the authority of the crown Pasic immediately formed a new government with Radic as the minister for education in 1925 4 other cabinet jobs went to CPP members Radic busied himself with reducing education (he argued it spoiled the peasant youth) whilst berating his new Radical colleagues Resigned in 1926 and CPP reverted to old oppositional role o 4 days later, Pasic resigned but died of a stroke later that year, aged 81 after Alexander refused to let him form another government. With Pasic gone there was an internal power struggle, elections in 1927 did not help the stalemate. The Radical party split into 3 parts with large accusations of abuse of powers emerging from all 3. o Radic returned to government but criticised his own colleagues again o No government business could be settled in parliament Even a Peasant-Democrat coalition, bringing together Radic and Pribicevics parties o But they used wrecking tactics in parliament again and as such elections went to the Opposition This government fell in 12 months and Radic was asked to form a new government Had to get the Slovenes and Slav Muslims to ally with him to get a majority o However, they were sick of the parliamentary regime, in an audience with the king they argued for a dictatorship than the Vidovdan regime. In parliament Radic would constantly insult all those in opposition, there was even a medical consult called to determine Radics mental stability by Racic 2 months later Racic would open fire in Parliament, killing 2 and wounding 3, one of which was Radic who died 2 months later.

Royal Dictatorship

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Following murder of Radic, the Peasant-Democrats moved their headquarters to Zagreb and declared the Peoples Assembly void, demanding a federal form of government Radicals refused to discuss the idea On 26th January 1929, after 5 months of protracted efforts, Alexander declared a royal dictatorship, killing off the already dead system of government The Vidovdan years were devoid of any real leglisation Pasic was a manipulator to gain his own Serbian interests Radic was impossible to work with

Alexander was an enlightened despot rather than a dictator in the contemporary mould. 1929 royal decrees contained a torrent of overdue reforms such as a single uniform legal code and a standardised tax structure However, Alexander could only maintain the unitary state by relying on Serb dominance: This defeated any claims he had to supra-national authority o The new Banovinas replacing the 33 prefectures left Serbs in the majority of 6 of them In an effort to root out the sources of nationalism, Alexander banned all political parties and organisations based on ethnic affiliations. Even religious schools were under threat However, Alexander became a symbol for the forces of Serbian centralism and repression appointment of General Zivkovic brought a wave of brutality and arrests suffocating press laws subordination of the judiciary to crown control o leader of the CPP was arrested in connection to a bombing in Zagreb despite having no connections to it.

As such the dictatorship united the opposition of liberal Serbs, Croats, Slovene and Bosnian Muslims against Alexander.

None of the parties at the time were allowed due to their ethnic

links Bogus elections took place in 1931, Peasant-Democrats and other parties took no part as they were ethnically connected parties As such of the new assembly was comprised of Serbs

Origins of Serb-Croat Tensions

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Not only historical but largely a product of the unification process itself. Radic and Pasic did not speak for pre-existing nations, they were trying to create them Peasants lived a life well separated from that of the urban politicians Communal existence Croatian nationalism fed on the insecurities of the peasants, whos society had been wrecked by war. Radic was able to tap into this vein which would have otherwise flowed in revolutionary war. Played the role of political entrepreneur, whipping the Croatians into opposition against the Serbs Ironically, it was the abstention of Radics party which paid off in terms of parliamentary representation. His party increased from 50 to 70 seats in 1923, the entering of governmental administrations gave no bonuses. Neither Bosnian Muslims or Slovenes welcomed the idea of an independent Croatian nation Both groups acted as power-brokers, useful only in the continuation of the broken system. Serbia Only after 1903 did Serbia enter into mass politics and take the first steps to industrialisation Balkan and WWI stopped this however, and even though Serbia doubled in size through Versaille the military and ruling elites of the Old Kingdom now had ethnic minorities to deal with The 2 main Serbian parties depended on votes from outside the heartland of Serbia. In 1921 Serbs made up on only 39% of the population of the Old Kingdom. 1920 Assembly Elections, Radicals won over half of their votes from outside the Old Kingdom.

Economics Massive disparities between industrialisation in the unified states

Divisions between relatively backward nations and backward nations became politically relevant. By 1928 Zagreb banks held over half of all the countrys assets. In Slovenia, British, Czech and Swiss capital helped create industrialisation

Ironically, in Croatia, entrepeneurship flourished from behind a defensive wall of a party committed to the installation of a peasant republic It was in fact no the peasants who benefitted from this but the urban commercial classes. o Radic aided the creation of a bourgeois Croatian nationalism that may well have influenced his decision to enter government in 1925 Land Reform The Radicals toiled to shore up the Peasant economy Land Reform was a large issue o Serbia had a history of shielding small-holders through disposition through debt o Nothing to choose between Radic and Pasic on this issue o Protection of the homestead embodied the vision of the peasant as the backbone of the nation. of all agricultural land was allocated to landless families combined with grants to volunteers to work on this land. Amounted to the decision to recreate the traditional basis of social order in a new political world. Peasants produced a surplus only in order to pay what taxes they could not avoid and buy manufactured goods No coherent strategy for industrialisation Aided by foreign help and loans o i.e. war reparation paid by Germany in gold. Trouble is that urbanism did not increase fast enough By 1931 only 3 cities had more than 100,000 population The government inherited a very slow pace of modernisation Multiple forms of landholding 5 currencies

3 banking systems 5 different railway networks war destroyed much of what little industry there was

Despite this by 1926 the economic situation had improved However, much of state income was spent on military spending and a bloated bureaucratic form Corruption Lack of democratic controls over recruitment meant nepotism was commonplace Ban on all political activity by state employees: these were the best and brightest! Political life was punctuated with financial scandals: o Pasic was constantly embarrassed by the shady actions of his son Bribery was common o Critics argued Serbs maintained power by oriental methods like the Turks.