Svetozar Marković and Swiss democracy

Svetozar Marković (1846-1875) lived in Switzerland in 1869-1870 and during that time he became acquainted with the Swiss system of direct democracy, especially in the canton of Zurich. There was also a strong tradition of municipal self-government in Serbia, which was based on municipal assemblies, as a form of direct democracy. Marković wanted to reform Serbia into an association of self-governing counties, following the Swiss model. In the second step, according to Marković's idea, the counties and the association itself would gradually begin to take on a socialist character. After the Paris Commune (1871), when Marx also accepted the idea of communalism, and especially when he agreed with the idea ofa "Russian" path to socialism - with a reliance on the traditional village commune - the positions of Marković and Marx became completely close. Therefore, Marković can also be quite freely classified as a Marxist. However, since he was explicitly in favour of a democratic path to socialism (in phase two), Marković can be assessed as a Marxist-democrat.