Serbian Progressive Party (historical)

The Serbian Progressive Party (Serbian: Српска напредна странка / Srpska napredna stranka) was a conservative liberalpolitical party in Serbia that existed from 1881 to 1919.

The origin of the Progressive Party can be traced back to a political grouping known as "Young Conservatives" that had existed from 1871. Their leadership mainly consisted of young Western trained intellectuals who later took part in the Editorial Board of Serbian journal Videlo. This journal was established in January 1880 as an organ of political opposition against the government of Jovan Ristić, in power from October 1878 until November 3, 1880. The journal advocated freedom of speech, freedom of associations, full personal protection and protection of property rights, constitutional responsibility of cabinet ministers, access of experts to the National Assembly, full independence of the Judiciary, and autonomy of municipalities. In the field of foreign policy the Progressive Party was not inclined to Russia contrary to the other two political parties in Serbia. It rather advocated close relations with Austria-Hungary. In economy the party advocated completely liberal reforms. In terms of political ideologies the party was what may be termed as a conservative liberalism. Occasionally faced to choose between democracy and various freedoms the progressivists were prone to advocate and enforce freedoms. This made them too closely tied to the ruler and quickly diminished their popularity among electorate. Nonetheless they encouraged and paved the way for the modernization of Serbia by introducing modern institutions and progressive laws.

The Progressive Party was founded in January 1881. It did not have a clear leader but was rather headed by a quartet consisting of: Milan Piroćanac, Milutin Garašanin, Stojan Novaković and Čedomilj Mijatović. The party was in power in the 1880s and was openly favoured by Prince/King Milan Obrenović. Party’s opponents viewed the progressivists as a personal party of the king.

...
Wikipedia