Their leadership mainly consisted of young Western-trained intellectuals who later took part in the Editorial Board of Serbian journal Videlo.
This journal was established in January 1880 as an organ of political opposition against the government of Jovan Ristić, in power from October 1878 until November 3, 1880.
In the first issue, Stojan Novaković declared: "The younger and generally more active forces of the former so-called conservative party united with the younger forces of the so-called liberal party around a program, the main part of which will be the fight against pseudo-liberalism and sincere work for the promotion of modern, truly liberal public foundations.
It did not have a clear leader but was rather headed by a quartet consisting of: Milan Piroćanac, Milutin Garašanin, Stojan Novaković and Čedomilj Mijatović.
The party advocated freedom of speech, freedom of associations, full personal protection and protection of property rights, constitutional responsibility of cabinet ministers, access of experts to the National Assembly, full independence of the Judiciary, autonomy of municipalities and free market economy.
Since Serbia had almost universal male suffrage since 1869, the Progressivists could not win any free elections since their electoral base was only in few towns and the total Serbian urban population was 1900 around 14%.
The new Serbian king Aleksandar Obrenović succeeded his father in 1889 but was not of legal age and therefore a Regency was established headed by Jovan Ristić.