IN COMPANY WITH OFFENDERS FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD: POLITY OF THE KINGDOM OF THE SERBS, CROATS AND SLOVENES 1918-1941

The Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (hereafter SHS)/Yugoslavia existed for twenty three years, between 1918 and 1941. During that period it was characterized by the harsh use of the state repressive apparatus and latent political dubiousness. The author argues the reasons for such an environment, which he finds in unsolved national questions and an authoritarian political regime. The role of the king was considered crucial in keeping the regime authoritarian and the political structure of the Kingdom fragile. Understanding the polity of the Kingdom is decisive for an indepth overview of its breakup, which is also the goal of this paper. A circle point is made around empirical data out of the Polity IV project, which investigates changes of the world polity forms from 1800 to 2010