Lokalna samouprava u Kraljevini Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca

Abstract

Different views on the form of state organization emerged during the session of the Constituent Assembly in the newly formed Yugoslav state. This caused the formation of two political blocs in the Constituent Assembly, the centralist and the federalist. Centralist bloc was formed of political parties that represented the majority in the Constituent Assembly. On the other side, the federalist opposition bloc was consisted mostly of Croatian and Slovenian political parties. Various constitutional drafts that were submitted to the Constituent Committee comprised different possible solutions regarding local self-government. A system of particularly broad local self-government proposed a draft constitution that was prepared by Stojan Protić, the first Prime Minister in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes adopted on 28 June 1921 proclaimed unitary state. According to the Constitution, the state territory had to be organized administratively into areas, districts and municipalities. The Constitution had also set the framework for further legislative activity regarding the self-government issue in the Yugoslav state. The Law regarding local self-government was adopted in April 1922. Local self-government bodies were: district assembly and district committee. The scope of work of self-governing bodies was rather wide. The provisions of the Law prescribed rather strong supervision over the functioning of the local self- government by the state authorities. The Next step according to the provisions of the Law was to hold local elections in order to form local self-government bodies. However, the solutions adopted pursuant to the abovementioned law provoked disapproval among political circles in the state that advocated federal state system. That combined with constant political instability, caused postponing of the aforementioned local elections until January 1927. After the local elections had been held, it became clear that the legislation on local self-government had to be amended in order to be organized on solid basis. Finally the local self-government was abolished during the Dictatorship of King Alexander Karađorđević.