Party of Democratic Action

The Party of Democratic Action (SDA) was founded on 26 May 1990 in Sarajevo, as a "party of Muslim cultural-historic circle". It was a realisation of Alija Izetbegović's idea of an Islamic religious and national party in Bosnia and Herzegovina.{{Cn|date=September 2023}} Many members of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including imams, took part in the party's foundation. Alija, who was chosen as its chairman, tried to resolve disputes between the Muslim nationalist Islamists led by Omer Behmen and the left-wing Muslims led by Adil Zulfikarpašić.{{sfn|Perica|2004|p=87}} The party has its roots in the old Yugoslav Muslim Organization, a conservative Muslim party in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Yugoslav Muslim Organization was a successor of Muslimanska Narodna Organizacija (Muslim National Organization), a conservative Muslim party founded in 1906 during the Austro-Hungarian era. The Muslim National Organization was itself a successor of the conservative Muslim "Movement for waqf and educational autonomy" (Pokret za vakufsko-mearifsku autonomiju) that goes back to 1887.

The SDA achieved considerable success in elections after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. It founded the newspaper Ljiljan. The party remains the strongest political party among the Bosniak population in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In November 2000, the party was defeated by the Social Democratic Party and other parties gathered into the "Alliance for Change", and found itself in opposition for the first time since its creation.{{cite book |last= Al-Azmeh |first= Aziz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uoSUovCrjLwC&pg=PA117|title=Islam in Europe: Diversity, Identity, and Influence| access-date=2009-06-18|page=118 |year=2007 |publisher= Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521860116}}{{Clarify|reason=Defeated at what level?|date=February 2015}} After the 2022 general election, the SDA became once again the largest party in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The party has branches in Slovenia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Croatia and the Sandžak region of Serbia. One of the goals of the party, outside Bosnia and Herzegovina, is to represent and defend the interests of Bosniaks and other Muslim South Slavs in the entire Balkan region. In Montenegro, the SDA merged with smaller Bosniak and Slavic Muslim parties to create the Bosniak Party.

The party is an observer member of the European People's Party (EPP).

The Party of Democratic Action is the primary stronghold for right-orientated Bosniaks, especially for nationalists, and conservatives, and thus they have been described as national-conservative.{{Cite news |date=8 November 2018 |title=A State of Division |url=https://jacobinmag.com/2018/11/bosnia-herzegovina-elections-nationalism |work=Jacobin}} The party has been also described as secularist by some researchers.[https://books.google.com/books?id=vfnPAQAAQBAJ&dq=sda+secular&pg=PA35 "Innocence and Victimhood: Gender, Nation, and Women’s Activism in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina", Elizabeth Helms, University of Wisconsin Press][https://books.google.com/books?id=e93Pj_HB5fQC&dq=sda+bosnia+secular&pg=PA14 "Islam and Bosnia: Conflict Resolution and Foreign Policy in Multi-ethnic States"], edited by Maya Shatzmiller, McGill-Queen's University Press Islamist and Pan-Islamist ideologies exist in the party but tends to represent itself mainly among the elite apparatus of the party.[https://books.google.com/books?id=auA3DwAAQBAJ&dq=sda+Pan-Islamism&pg=PA105 Xavier Bougarel, "Islam and Nationhood in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Surviving Empires", Bloomsbury][https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00220516/document Xavier Bougarel. "Bosnian Islam since 1990: Cultural Identity or Political Ideology?", Convention annuelle de l’Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), p. 3] The party supports the centralization of the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina.{{Cite web |date=11 October 2019 |title=Bosnia-Herzegovina political briefing: BIH's Troyka Agreement – ambitious or premature plan to exit from 10 months-long government crisis? – China-CEE Institute |url=https://china-cee.eu/2019/10/11/bosnia-herzegovina-political-briefing-bihs-troyka-agreement-ambitious-or-premature-plan-to-exit-from-10-months-long-government-crisis/}} On foreign stances they also tend to be atlanticist and supportive of the accession of Bosnia and Herzegovina to NATO and the European Union.[https://books.google.com/books?id=mfMiAQAAQBAJ&dq=sda+western+democracy&pg=PA92 "Party Politics in the Western Balkans" edited by Vera Stojarová, Peter Emerson]

{{details|List of chairpersons of the Party of Democratic Action}}

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from:31/03/2015 till:25/01/2023 shift:($dx,$dy) color:Coalition

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from:14/02/2003 till:28/04/2023 shift:($dx,$dy) color:Coalition

from:28/04/2023 till:end shift:($dx,$dy) color:Opposition

• Elections in the Party of Democratic Action
• List of Islamic political parties

{{Notelist}}

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• {{cite book|last=Babić |first=Marko |editor-first1=Marko |editor-last1=Milosevic |editor-last2=Rekawek |editor-first2=Kacper |title=Perseverance of Terrorism: Focus on Leaders |location=Amsterdam |publisher=IOS Press |year=2014 |isbn=9781614993872}}
• {{cite book|last=Eralp |first=Doğa Ulaş |year=2012 |title=Politics of the European Union in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Between Conflict and Democracy |location=Lanham, MD |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=9780739149478 }}
• {{cite book|last=Farmer |first=Brian R. |title=Radical Islam in the West: Ideology and Challenge |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland |year=2010 |isbn=9780786462100}}
• {{cite book|last=Krieger |first=Joel |year= 2012 |title=The Oxford Companion to Comparative Politics |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199738595 }}
• {{cite book|last=Perica |first=Vjekoslav |year=2004 |title=Balkan Idols: Religion and Nationalism in Yugoslav States |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195174298 }}
• {{cite book|last=Šedo |first=Jakub |year=2013 |chapter=The party system of Bosnia and Herzegovina |editor-last1=Stojarová |editor-first1=Vera |editor-last2=Emerson |editor-first2=Peter |title=Party Politics in the Western Balkans |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135235857 }}
• {{cite book|last=Tottoli |first=Roberto |year=2014 |title=Routledge Handbook of Islam in the West |location=London |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317744023 }}

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• {{cite web|last=Filipović |first=Muhamed |author-link=Muhamed Filipović |title=Kako su se razišli Alija i Adil |url=https://www.bhdani.ba/portal/arhiva-67-281/165/t16511.htm |newspaper=BH Dani |date=28 July 2000 |access-date=1 March 2015 |language=sh |ref={{harvid|Filipović|28 July 2000}}}}

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• {{Official website}} {{in lang|bs}}

{{Bosnian political parties}}

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{{European People's Party}}

{{Alija Izetbegović}}

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Category:Political parties established in 1990

Category:Islamic political parties

Category:Bosniak political parties