48 



AUSTRIAN ELECTOEAL SYSTEM. 



now. The Germans, although less than half of 

 the population, have in the House actually more 

 than two hundred of the three hundred and 

 fifty-three deputies. In Bohemia, in particular, 

 the law of 1873 assigns thirty-four deputies to 

 2,500,000 Slavs, and fifty-six deputies to 1,500,- 

 000 Germans. 



One can conceive how this law must raise 

 opposition. It has been assailed vigorously, 

 especially by the Poles, who refuse to assent to 

 it, notwithstanding all the independent conces- 

 sions that have been offered to them. When 

 the bill was presented, on February 15, 1873, 

 M. Casimir de Grocholski denounced it as a 

 flagrant violation of national rights, and with- 

 drew, at the head of all his friends, from the 

 Polish bench. Nevertheless, the bill was passed 

 some days afterward by one hundred and twenty 

 votes to two, in the absence of the Czech and 

 Polish deputies. 



The agitation for an electoral reform has 

 commenced, and penetrated the most diverse 

 classes of society and the most opposite polit- 

 ical parties. Operatives and peasants, socialists 

 and democrats, progressives and conservatives, 

 agree in the desire to modify the law, although 

 their views have been very different relative 

 to the extent of the modification. Some at- 

 tempts at reform have been made in the Reichs- 

 rath, and an important measure has passed, 

 by which the qualification of voters was low- 

 ered from ten to five florins in towns, and the 

 number of voters considerably increased. In 

 the unique political condition of Austria it is 

 the so-called Liberal or Centralist party which 

 will lose by the extension of the franchise, and 

 which opposes it as a danger to its pretended 

 Liberal principles. Liberalism in Austria, as 

 above stated, means Germanization and the 

 continuance of German domination. The Lib- 

 eral, or German Constitutional, party, with 

 which Prince Auersperg fell in 1879, was, like 

 the Liberals of Germany and Republicans of 

 France, brought into discredit by the financial 

 speculation and corruption which flourished 

 under their rule, while its main political aim 

 was the reactionary one of combating the 

 Czechish movement, and keep the Czechs and 

 other Slavic races in political subjection to the 

 Germans. The Clerical party, on the other 

 hand, was in thorough sympathy with the 

 Czechs, who had preserved a haughty silence 

 ever since the dual Constitution had left their 

 great nation unenfranchised, but who were 

 now thoroughly aroused. The Clericals were 

 thus the advocates of popular rights. They 

 received a partial support from the German 

 Conservatives. In the Taafe Ministry the 

 Czechs found recognition for the first time. 

 They have made great headway in their strug- 

 gle to preserve the Bohemian language and 

 national ideas and customs from the extinction 

 systematically planned by their German rulers. 

 The success of the Czechs has given heart to 

 the various lesser nationalities in Austria. The 

 distinctive policy of the Taafe Government is 



to favor the Slav races and reverse the process 

 of forcible Germanization. The new electoral 

 law was not brought in by the Government, 

 but adopted, and its limits set after it was 

 under discussion. Under this new law the 

 representation will be something like 183 Ger- 

 mans and 167 of other nationalities; while, if 

 the programme of the new German People's 

 party were carried out, class representation 

 abolished, and the suffrage greatly extended, 

 it would be 225 of other nationalities against 

 127 Germans. Placing the limit at "five- 

 gulden men," and not lower, was done out of 

 regard for the German dread of the " Slavic 

 inundation." Count Taafe's Ministry does not 

 represent either of the warring elements, but 

 acts as an intermediary between them. The 

 working majority with which he carries through 

 his compromise measures, often by a very close 

 vote, contains a considerable element in mod- 

 erate sympathy with German prejudices. If 

 he should be driven by an adverse vote to dis- 

 solve Parliament, a strong phalanx of Czechs 

 and Clericals would be returned under the 

 five-gulden qualification, which would drive 

 him more rapidly in the course which he is 

 pursuing. 



The electoral question was introduced in the 

 Provincial Diets, and gave rise to sharper 

 struggles than attended its discussion in the 

 Reichsrath. With the progress of decentrali- 

 zation the Diets are becoming powerful polit- 

 ical bodies. The Slavs demanded, reasonably 

 enough, that the electoral limitation should be 

 lowered to the five-florin basis, and attacked 

 the system of class representation. Where the 

 German party would gain, as in Lower Aus- 

 tria, they eagerly supported the electoral re- 

 form, but set their face firmly against it in 

 Bohemia, where it would cost them the su- 

 preme control which they now exercise. 



The House of Lords is neither a popular body 

 nor elective. Like the majority of similar bod- 

 ies in Europe, it rests upon constitutional right, 

 inheritance of land, or nobility, and the ap- 

 pointment of the Emperor. It is composed of- 

 the elder princes of the imperial house, mem- 

 bers of right, the nine archbishops, and the 

 seven bishops, who have the rank of princes ; the 

 great lord-proprietors, to the number of fifty- 

 three, members by inheritance; and members 

 appointed for life by the Emperor. 



The half-Austrian and the half-Hungarian 

 Parliament meets alternately at Vienna and 

 at Pesth. Its authority is limited to the com- 

 mon interests of the empire. Each delegation 

 consists of sixty members, chosen by the Cis- 

 leithan and Transleithan Parliaments. The ap- 

 pointments are made in accordance with a pro- 

 portional division of the whole number among 

 the distinct nationalities. 



The variety of nations and languages in Aus- 

 tria has not only produced a strange and com- 

 plicated electoral system, but it is manifest in 

 the diversity of parties. This does not arise, as 

 under most of the constitutional governments, 



