セルビア進歩党（セルビア王国）

進歩党の起源は1871年に遡る。党の指導部は主に西欧で教育を受けた若い知識人で構成され、後にセルビアの雑誌『ヴィデロ』の編集委員会に参加した。この雑誌は1880年1月に、1878年10月から1880年11月3日まで政権を握っていたヨヴァン・リスティッチ政権に対する政治的反対運動の機関として創刊された。創刊号でストヤン・ノヴァコヴィッチは次のように宣言した。「いわゆる保守党の若く、概して活動的な勢力は、いわゆる自由党の若く、勢力と連携し、偽自由主義との闘いと、近代的で真に自由主義的な公共基盤の促進のための誠実な活動を中心とした綱領を掲げた。」^{[ 1 ]}

同誌は、言論の自由、結社の自由、完全な個人の保護と財産権の保護、閣僚の憲法上の責任、国民議会への専門家のアクセス、司法の完全な独立、自治体の自治を主張した。外交政策の分野では、進歩党はセルビアの他の2つの政党とは異なり、ロシアに傾倒していなかった。むしろ、オーストリア＝ハンガリーとの緊密な関係を主張した。経済では、同党は完全な自由主義改革を主張した。政治イデオロギーの観点から言えば、同党はセルビアのホイッグ主義と呼べるものであった。^{[ 1 ]}民主主義とさまざまな自由の間で選択を迫られると、進歩主義者は自由を主張し、強制する傾向があった。このため、彼らは支配者と密接に結びつき、有権者の間での人気は急速に低下した。それでも、彼らは近代的な制度と進歩的な法律を導入することで、セルビアの近代化を奨励し、その道を開いた。

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 favored by Prince/King Milan Obrenović. Party’s opponents viewed the progressivists as a personal party of the king.

The party 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, autonomy of municipalities and free market economy. 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. 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 the electorate. Nonetheless, they encouraged and paved the way for the modernization of Serbia by introducing modern institutions and progressive laws.

The first progressivist government was led by Milan Piroćanac from November 2, 1880, until October 3, 1883. In that period he was an unofficial leader of the party. The next Progressivist Government was formed in February 1884 by Milutin Garašanin who thus became a new party leader. He formed three successive but short governments (February 19, 1884 – June 13, 1887). Afterward, the Progressive party was subjected to serious persecutions by its rivals in 1887, and in 1889 after the abdication of King Milan Obrenović. Since Serbia had almost universal male suffrage since 1869, the Progressivists could not win any free elections since their electoral base was only in few towns and the total Serbian urban population was 1900 around 14%. Their victory in 1884 was achieved due to the previous state of emergency introduced to suppress the Timok Rebellion in October/November 1883. In the late 1880s the Progressive party lost its position in Serbia and it never fully recovered.

The new Serbian king Aleksandar Obrenović succeeded his father in 1889 but was not of legal age and therefore a Regency was established headed by Jovan Ristić. In 1894 king Alexander staged a coup and took all power. Afterward, he occasionally used Progressivist politicians to fill in places in subsequent governments. However, by the time of the death of Milutin Garašanin in 1898, the party ceased to exist in organizational terms.

1906年に再結成され、ストヤン・ノヴァコヴィッチが党首を務めた。小規模政党ではあったが、併合危機（1908年～1909年）において重要な役割を果たした。第一次世界大戦後、民主党に統合された。