builders of yugoslav state and nation stipica grgić [email protected]
TRANSCRIPT
Administrative Elite during the Dictatorship of King Alexander (1929-1934)
Builders of Yugoslav State and Nation
Stipica Grgić[email protected]
Introduction Who is the administrative elite in interwar Yugoslavia? How this elite operated during the Dictatorship of king Alexander (1929-1935)?
On January 6th 1929 King Alexander Karadjordjevic, emphasizing political and national crisis that obstructed the development of the multiethnic Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/Yugoslavia in its first ten years, suspended the constitution, banned all political parties and proclaimed his personal dictatorship
Policy of centralism and national unitarisation in Yugoslavia reached its climax during the next five years
Goals of the dictatorship Autocratic regime sought above all to show himself as a modernizer and builder of Yugoslav state and nation
Concentration of power in the King’s person (Royal absolutism) Centralization of power in government’s hands Legal (and other) preservation of the country's new political order Increasing and maintaining national and state unity (Yugoslav identity and state cohesion)
In the daily implementation of his ideas into action regime depended on the services of administrative elites – the entire army of previously elected officials, as well as those who were state-appointed, set by the state at the helm of certain unit
Centralization A wide variety of laws strengthened the state’s, i.e. the regime’s place in everyday life
Until 1929 the state and political parties representing it used security forces (gendarmerie and administrative apparatus) and mechanisms to strengthen state security, territorial integrity and ensure party survival
After 1929 the same forces, without the ballast of the political party interferences, maintained identical objectives, but added to them new, ideological missions
Centralization
A wide variety of laws strengthened the state’s, i.e. the regime’s place in everyday life
Until 1929 the state and political parties representing it used security forces (gendarmerie and administrative apparatus) and mechanisms to strengthen state security, territorial integrity and ensure party survival
After 1929 the same forces, without the ballast of the political party interferences, maintained identical objectives, but added to them new, ideological missions
King and his ministers in 1930
Banovinas New administrative division of the country: Law on name and division of the Kingdom in October 1929 created nine more centralized (regional) units
The basic units in internal organization
Selfproclaimed “Monumental work” of the regime in a pre-modern, mostly agricultural country
Banovina Surface (in km²) Population (1931.)
Drava 15.849 1.144.298
Drina 27.845 1.534.739
Danube 31.229 2.387.295
Morava 25.466 1.435.584
Littoral 19.653 901.660
Sava 40.535 2.704.383
Vardar 36.672 1.547.243
Vrbas 18.917 1.037.382
Zeta 30.997 925.516
Provinces (oblasti) Banovinas
(1924-1929) (1929-1939)
Hierarchy: Banovinas → districts (kotari, srezovi) → urban and rural municipalities
Integrity of the administration – „every settlement must belong to one municipality; a municipality may only be under the authority of one district, and a district under the jurisdiction of a single Banovina“
Kingdom of Yugoslavia: 9 Banovinas, 324 districts, >4.650 municipalities
Sava Banovina’s District Brinje and it’s municipalities
Sava Banovina = 69 districts and 537 urban and rural municipalities
Littoral Banovina = 20 districts and 109 municipalities
King
Ministers
Ban of each Banovina
District chiefs (sreski poglavari)
The structure of the executive power of the state authorities after 1929King Alexander with his ministers in the moment of the proclamation of the dictatorship
Ivo Perović; Ban of Sava Banovina (1930-1934) and one of three regents who formally governed the country after the assassination of King Aleksandar (1934-1941)
The heavy hand of the regime was mostly felt through the actions of the lower sphere of governance, i.e. the authorities that were coming in a direct contact with the people
District (srez, kotar, okraj…) The most direct state administrative unit, with which citizens could come in contact on every day basis
It never subsumed even a partial self-governing character district chief – state appointed professional (law degree) at the helm of each district; he worked on all matters that had to do with police, economic, cultural, educational, technical, and many other tasks
His duties in many ways were not strictly defined, but were expanding
Municipalities Municipalities de iure maintained their self-governing character The trude local self-administration was de facto suppressed - the regime in 1929 suspended all forms of democracy and free elections, from the highest to the lowest level
State appointed officials (District chiefs and Bans) had the right to impose new mayors and counselors and even professional civil servants of their trust to the municipalities and to revoke any decisions made by the municipal councils or their mayors and „in the name of the state” - they abused their legal position to interfere in the basic rights of every self-governing unit and to verify on a daily basis ideological loyalty of the population
(Un)willing helpers Heads of the administration (from Banovina to the smallest municipality) were given unwilling tasks by the new regime:
Watch over further economic and social development and that all the people obey the law
Provide full support for the few pro-regime societies, parties and politicians
Monitor all, even the smallest signs of opposition torwards the regime Administrative elite called the citizens to join them and to cooperate with the regime that works for their benefit, but they happily penalized or reported to higher authorities’ individuals or the whole groups that were, for example, telling jokes about the ruler, singing songs about Croatian or Serbian nation, hanging national, not-Yugoslav flags, etc.
system in which the every senior civil servant vigilantly supervised all work and daily life of their subordinate officers
Servants of the People? The citizens judged the regime by the actions of the civil servants they came in contact with
Impossibility of any democratic influence; incompetency of the elite
Accusations of bribery, corruption, unprofessional, arbitrary and unfriendly attitude towards the citizens
In best case scenario the regime replaced one individual with another, who often acted in the same way as his predecessor - there was not enough staff to replace the existing personnel on key positions in the administration
Representation of different nations in the administration (1)
Formally the regime vigorously pointed out that the language, religion and ethnic origin of the individual does not matter, because all the citizens are equal to him in a new, unitary Yugoslavia
Thesis: inadequate inclusion of the Croats in the military, politics, and the various aspects of public services (especially in civil services)
1918-1941 no Croat became Prime Minister or the Minister of Interior, but many prominent Croatian businessmen often occupied the most important position in the sectors of economy, trade and industry, etc. (preservation of their privileged position in the society)
Minister (and Ban) as „the face of the regime” - the persons from high society who clearly expressed his faith in the regime’s ideas and accepted the unitary Yugoslavism as his own political, but also the national orientation (unlike the most of the population they supposed to govern)
Representation of different nations in the administration (2)
In various municipalities the regime relied on the support of local elite - urging them, in order to keep their social and economic position, to provide support and collaboration
Municipal councils and mayors elected before the dictatorship, regardless of nationality and religion, were given the option to stay on their positions if their work does not breach the instructions or ideas of state authorities
Most of them were soon replaced with the people who clearly supported the regime – but the fund of such people was relatively small
Farmers53%
State-appointed commissioners (municipal notaries and treasurers-professional civil servants)19%
All other professions
28%
Mayors of the rural munici-palities of Sava Banovina in
1930
Representation of different nations in the administration (3)
Misperception: district chiefs in Croatian parts as lawyers originally from Serbia, who were unfamiliar with the laws and legal proceedings that remained here in the practice of the Austro-Hungarian era
Reality: Professionals, mostly form Croatia, poor social background - civil service provided to them and their families a good and steady salary and gave a respectable place in society
Administrative elite – it is difficult to determine how many of them enthusiastically supported the regime’s efforts while the others did their work out of mere existential or other similar reasons
Craftsmen5%
Priests of vari-ous re-ligions
10%
Farmers43%
Civil servants (mostly pri-mary-school
teachers)43%
District chiefs of Sava Banovina - profession of their fathers
No data
24%
Roman
Catholics52%
Or-thodox24%
Muslim1%
District chiefs of Sava Banovina by their re-
ligion
