ЛОКАЛНА УПРАВА И САМОУПРАВА У БЕОГРАДСКОМ ПАШАЛУКУ ПРЕД ПРВИ СРПСКИ УCTAHAK
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE BELGRADE PASHADOM ON THE EVE OF THE FIRST SERBIAN UPRISING

Summary/Abstract: Serbian people in the Belgrade Pashadom (province ruled by Turkish pasha) prior to the First Serbian Uprising enjoyed »certain local self-government«, which included the following self-managing bodies, namely: village meetings, village mayors and village dukes, district (village duke’s) assemblies, district dukes and regionfna/ii/a) assemblies. Establishing of these self-managing institutions in the eighteenth century was of great importance to the people in Serbia. Turkish feudal system and Turkish administration were not able to realize that »power over people in Serbia« which they had prior to the eighteenth century. In such conditions peasants were able to organize their own village and district (knežine) self-government forms. This enabled the people in villages »to organize mutually more firmly and to prepare for further struggle to obtain their independence«. The district (knežina) self-government was the organisation framework which, among other relevant elements, promoted peasantry in Serbia »to acquire also a politically able leadership«. The village mayors (knežinski knezovi) shall »be at the head of all movements of people in the Belgrade Pashadom at the end of the eighteenth and in the beginning of the nineteenth century«. Abolishing of district and village self-governments, which took place immediately prior to the First Serbian Uprising, inflicted a havy blow to an order which existed for a long period. Terror exerted by Turkish governors (dahije), as well as abolishing of the existing local self-government, undoubtedly speeded up the breaking out of that uprising, becoming thus an immediate cause thereof.

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