Position of the Head of State in Serbia in the XIXth and XXth Centuries

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze and present the evolution, specificities, and changes regarding the role of the head of state in Serbia and in the states of which Serbia was part in the period from the First Serbian Uprising in 1804 until the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991. During this period, Serbia had 11 rulers—three of whom lost their lives due to assassinations, two of whom were deposed, and two of whom abdicated—and two dynasties. More than 15 constitutions and constitutional acts were adopted shaping, among other issues, the position of the head of state. This period comprises constitutional issues of three countries—the Principality/Kingdom of Serbia, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes/Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia/Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in which the position
of the head of state continuously changed due to the will of the ruler to strengthen it and the attempt of other institutions to limit it. Furthermore, six coups d’état were executed and the state also passed through phases of dictatorship or autocracy. The content
of this paper follows the form of state and its modifications in a periodic fashion.