Sources of the Ideology of the Serbian Radical Movement 1881–1903

Abstract

The sources of the ideology of Serbian Radicalism were twofold: imported and domestic. The imported (or foreign) influences came in three major waves: 1) European (especially Russian) socialist, anarchist, and populist traditions, mainly influencing the group round Svetozar Marković and covering the period described as rudimentary Radicalism; 2) strong influence of the French Radical movement both in terms of political programme and organization; 3) British parliamentary and constitutional theory, fully accepted by the Radicals in Serbia by the late 1880s. The ideas drawn from European political experience needed to be transformed, changed, and adapted to suit the specific Serbian political environment. The internal (or domestic) sources of Radicalism were the specific political circumstances of Serbian society: political expressions emerging from the ruler, on the one hand, and from political parties, on the other, fundamentally influenced and modified the Radical ideology.