Rural Against Urban: Anti-Urban Discourse and Ideology in Early Twentieth Century Serbia
Rural Against Urban: Anti-Urban Discourse and Ideology in Early Twentieth Century Serbia

Summary/Abstract: The paper analyzes debates about the urbanization of Belgrade in the National Assembly of Serbia and in the Serbian public, from the first decade of the 20th century. These debates were the result of the abolition of certain sections of the Building Law, which provided benefits to people who built quality buildings. There were demands that the capital of Serbia be moved to another place, and the issues of the state credit necessary to complete the modernization of Belgrade were always kept open. All these questions caused heated discussions, in which some members of the National Assembly from the countryside, supported by members of the government, expressed arguments of a particular anti-urban, anti-European and anti-modernist ideology. Their political opponents argued against this, but the support of the government led to the proposals directed against Belgrade being accepted in the National Assembly. The present analysis of the arguments made in public reconstructs basic components of the anti-modernist ideology of early 20th century Serbia.

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