English title: “First Citizen of a Small Town”: The Role of the Municipal President in the Local Power Elite during Socialism – The Case of Čačak 

The article analyzes the role of the municipal president within the local power elite during socialism, using Čačak as a microhistorical case study. The office of municipal president had not only administrative and political significance. Within the local community, it represented a visible point of authority, legitimacy and symbolic order.

In the socialist system, membership in the Communist Party / League of Communists was the basic condition of political advancement, but it was not sufficient by itself. The selection and position of municipal presidents were shaped by wartime merits, Partisan biography, family background, expertise, education, party support and position within local and supra-local networks. Family political heritage, especially links with the Partisan movement and revolutionary legitimacy, held particular importance.

The article shows that local power under socialism did not function merely as an extension of the central system. Municipal presidents acted as mediators between the party hierarchy, state institutions, economic structures, local families, older political divisions and community expectations. In a small town, biography, origin and relational networks were more visible than in broader state-level analyses.

Through the case of Čačak, the article reveals how modern institutional mechanisms and older forms of local recognition, kinship, reputation and political inheritance intertwined within socialist society. The local power elite was formed precisely at this intersection, and its influence cannot be understood only through formal offices, but also through the symbolic role it held within the community.