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1907 - Universal Franchise

Czech and German, Pole and Ruthenian fought and were reconciled; then fought again. Inter-German quarrels, Agrarian versus Liberal, Clerical versus anti-Clerical, substituted endless interpellations for useful Parliamentary work, and obstruction became the order of the day. The whole was complicated by the Hungarian problem, the difficulties of which increased from hour to hour. Ministry succeeded Ministry, but each one proved more incompetent to deal with the situation than the last. Thus wearied by the perpetual conflict and utterly despairing of any progress, the Emperor himself decided to resort to the drastic experiment of Universal Suffrage which would have the effect of bringing social questions to the front and subordinating to them the nationalist quarrels.

December 1906 saw the passing of the law which granted the franchise to every male Austrian citizen over twenty-four years of age and resident for at least a year in the place of the election; each elector had only one vote. The number of deputies was now increased from 425 to 516. It was a vast unprepared revolution, a new and unlooked-for freedom, described by some one as a leap in the dark. Conjectures as to its results seemed impossible, because with the abandonment of the old electoral system of the curia a new army of millions of electors entered the field, and because, too, by the new arrangement established in the constituencies new conditions were created for the elections.

The new Parliament bad two great tasks before it: the final suppression of the nationalist wars and the introduction of an active and productive popular social policy - in short, the complete cure of the two maladies which had destroyed and killed the old Chamber of Privileges. The General Election was announced for May 1907. An obscure, interminable crowd rose up from tie depths. In the last elections of 1897, under the old system 1,217,993 electors recorded their votes; in 1907, 4,615.020 voters went to the poll. The people were animated by a new and lively spirit. Under the former regime the political life of the country and its Parliament had left the masses cold and indifferent.

In the former system of the privileged classes there were only individuals - there was no definite party idea: a small group supported each individual who then represented its interests. With universal suffrage the modern principle of party politics became a necessity. The general party idea, expressed in a programme intelligible to every one, was the only thing which appealed to the bulk of the electors, who had no personal knowledge of the candidate for whom they voted. Again: in the open competition of universal suffrage the real organizations would naturally triumph over the fluctuating electoral circles of the former parties. This explains the marvellous and unexpected triumph of the two new elements, really the only ones which formed a solid party: the Christian Socialists and the Socialists. Both of them commanded vast economic organizations, which now became powerful political forces. The representatives of the former in the Chamber rose from 27 to 66, those of the latter from 11 to 86. In 1907 no Parliament in Europe had a Socialist party so strong as the Austrian one. On the other hand, the old political ranks were decimated. Notwithstanding the addition of nearly a hundred seats in Parliament, only a third of the former members were returned. The three dominant groups of the old Chamber fell to pieces: of the 45 Young Czechs of former days only 4 were realected at the first count, of the 100 and more German Liberals only 60 survived, while the proud Polish nobility disappeared altogether. Even the very Ministers of the old Parliament, who had prepared the suffrage reform, fell before the rising tide of the new people.

The Parliament of Universal Suffrage was divided into two great parties: the 'Red' or Socialist and the 'Black' or Christian Socialist (or Clerical). The 'Blue' represented by the Agrarian nobility had disappeared. It was called the 'Small Man's Parliament,' and, in truth, rested entirely on the lower strata. The great majority of its electors belonged to the lowest categories as regards incomes, those ranging from a mere daily wage to an annual return of 3,000 crowns (£125). Politically, this was certainly its weak point, but at the same time it might have become its strength socially.

In all important European Parliaments, even those elected by a democratic suffrage, there was always a select minority, representing the rich and cultured classes, which directs the general policy and legislation. In the new Austrian Parliament, on the other band, the 'Blacks' and the 'Reds' were not longer opposed by another real cohesive group, but by little ghosts of parties. Above all, that intermediate element known as Liberal was lacking. Capital, industry, trade, and culture, represented principally by the old German Liberal middle classes, had been turned out. The host of small people, risen at one bound, was entirely new to politics and below the average level of education.

The two victorious parties, the Christian Socialists and the Socialists, at the opposite poles in their political opinions, in their social spirit, on the other hand, seemed to meet and be at one. Both of them, springing from the working classes, the peasants, and the small tradespeople, represented the poor. They stood for an economic Radicalism, surmounting racial antagonisms, and they professed a political Radicalism in their program.

Time went by, however, and disillusionment commenced. The stuff the new Chamber was made of was quickly seen. The appointment of the first President, Weisskirchner - a man without individuality, drawn from that Christian Socialist party which has its stronghold in the Municipal Council of Vienna, and nominated for the position by the Burgomaster Lueger, whose creature he was-^denoted the complete subjection of the Austrian Empire to the Municipal Council of the capital. The years passed, still the Parliament lived and discussed, the newspapers dedicated long reports to it, but the hoped-for reforms still tarried. At the end of four years the net result of its labours could be summed up in one word: Nothing. Beyond the compromise with Hungary, the Austrian Chamber had preved itself absolutely incapable of accomplishing anything new.