POLITIČKA OPOZICIJA U KRALJEVINI (SHS) JUGOSLAVIJI
POLITICAL OPPOSITION IN THE KINGDOM OF YUGOSLAVIA (SHS)

Summary/Abstract: Political opposition is an integral part of any regime, democratic or not. In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (SHS), the Opposition reflected the ethnic makeup of the country and was consequently divided into the Croatian, Serbian, Slovenian and other groups. The various groups forming the Opposition were clearly made according to the ethnic principle, yet the reasons for the constitution of the Serbian and the Croat Opposition groups, for instance, were quite different. The Serbian Opposition grew around the Serbs’ discontent with the regime, political rights restrictions, the constitution, socio-economic problems and other similar issues. The origin of the Croatian Opposition, on the other hand, lay in general national and political dissatisfaction with the existing form of government, developing with time into resistance to the Yugoslav state as such. An illustrative example of this is the fact that the major Croatian party did not acknowledge the Yugoslav kingdom for a full seven years. The Serbian Opposition concentrated on general civic issues, whereas the Croatians concerned themselves far more with ethnic and national questions. This affected the methods of their political struggle, making them essentially different. Serbian parties of the Opposition, contrary to their Croatian counterpart, never took their activity as far as obstructing the functioning of the stale. In the course of the Second World War, however, it became clear that the Croatian Opposition was far better organized and both nationally and politically more accomplished.

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