HISTORY OF POLITICAL IDEAS
THE IDEA OF FREEDOM IN SLOBODAN JOVANOVIC’S LEGAL AND POLITICAL WORKS
Abstract
Differentiating the ideal from the typical state, Slobodan Jovanovic talks about the emergence of the state, its elements and tasks, the relationship between state and law, state federations and federal state. While defending economic freedom and the principle of free market, the individualistic, liberal school opposes state interventionism, Jovanovic believes that the state must not remain neutral, because the market competition occurs not only between individuals, but also between different classes, which tend to subjugate one another. However, Slobodan Jovanovic denied the exploitation of peasants, which Svetozar Markovic spoke of, because there was no link between public servants and peasants in economic dependence, as in the relationship between workers and owners of means of production. Jovanovic also dealt with the political views of Pera Todorovic and one of the leaders of the Progressive Party, Milan Piroćanac, but also with the ideas of Plato, Machiavelli, Berk, and Marx. Jovanovic points out that Plato’s state has little to do with democratic political order, but draws comparisons with the ideologies of the twentieth century, fascism and Bolshevism. While the resemblance to fascism stems from opposition to democratic individualism, both Bolshevism and Plato’s idealism oppose plutocracy and advocate the dictatorship of the minority. The Enlightenment philosophy, its idealistic belief in reason, the rejection of tradition and experience, along with Rousseau’s understanding of anthropological optimism, were the drivers of French revolutionary aspirations. In contrast to the abstract revolutionary principles of freedom, fraternity and equality, Edmund Berk prefers history, tradition and experience. Exploring the Serbian constitutional issue during the nineteenth century, Slobodan Jovanovic analyzes the socio-political circumstances of the emergence of constitutional texts, theoretical influences, foreign role models, but also the work of great powers when writing constitutional drafts and in the first days of their validity.
References
