What if Austria-Hungary had federalized?

One important component of Austria-Hungary was that it was a dualist system. The Magyars were left to their own business while the other half of the monarchy was left to the Germans with some primitive autonomy for the other regions, such as Galicia. Yet as early of 1871 there were attempts to even out the dualism by attempts of federalization in the Austrian half of the monarchy. One of those attempts were the Fundamental Articles of 1871. They would've replaced the Austrian House of Lords with a Senate, and given the Kingdom of Bohemia relative autonomy within the Austrian portion of the empire with her own diet and the acceptance of Czech as an official language alongside German. Essentially it would be amounting to Trialism, as it'd give Bohemia similar rights as Hungary. There was opposition not only from the Magyars and the Hungarian Prime Minister, but the German Liberals, who opposed any equalization in Bohemia.

What if the Articles had been accepted by Franz Josef? Was it an arrangement set to fail, or would him accepting the articles despite backlash give the monarchy some breathing room? If it's accepted, it definitely gives a precedent for later agreements concerning Galicia, as well as minorities within the Kingdom of Hungary. It could cause issues with the newly united Germany, but given the time frame I'd doubt they'd be seriously angry or try to invade or anything like that.

In the long run, it'd give the Austrian portion of the monarchy an ally against the Magyars, as they would effectively be able to twist Hungary's arm if they proved resistive. In the short term though, it could be unstable... but not anymore unstable than politics in Austria-Hungary were in this period anyways, what with Czechs boycotting the Austrian Parliament for nearly a decade, unworkable governments, and weak Prime Ministers who had to deal with a lack of majorities in Parliament and had to form overreaching coalitions (like Taaffe and his Iron Ring of Conservatives, Clerics, and Slav allies).
 
You're right, the next step in federalization of the monarchy should have been uplifting Bohemia to the same status of equality as Austria and Hungary are.

Having that you would have solid foundations for the next steps of liberalization, say 4th part of the monarchy that would be Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia combined as was this little experiment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Slovenes,_Croats_and_Serbs

Concerning Galicia I wouldn't say that they had it that bad, the nostalgia for AH in the decades after the dissolution of the state was and is strongest in that part of the former empire and in the end they would gain the some kind of equality status everyone else had.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_Greater_Austria
 
You're right, the next step in federalization of the monarchy should have been uplifting Bohemia to the same status of equality as Austria and Hungary are.

Having that you would have solid foundations for the next steps of liberalization, say 4th part of the monarchy that would be Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia combined as was this little experiment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Slovenes,_Croats_and_Serbs

Concerning Galicia I wouldn't say that they had it that bad, the nostalgia for AH in the decades after the dissolution of the state was and is strongest in that part of the former empire and in the end they would gain the some kind of equality status everyone else had.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_Greater_Austria

You're right that Galicia themselves weren't too bad, they had relative autonomy from Vienna and the local Sejm had pretty strong control over local affairs. A Pole even served as Austrian Prime Minister IIRC, Count Bedini, I believe. It was he who finally introduced a weighted form of universal male suffrage in 1896 (that was followed by a full nonweighted system in 1908). Galicia wasn't too bad off as there was a sort of reapproachment between the Polish Elite and the Ruthenians that had settled the situation following the decades of centralized rule from Vienna.'

The South Slav situation is a bit more trickier. Croatia-Slavonia, at least defacto had it's own autonomy within Hungary, with it's own Parliament (the Sobor), led by the Ban of Croatia. There was also the Kingdom of Dalamatia that continued to exist as part of the Austrian portion of the monarchy with it's own functioning legislature, as well. I think the most likely thing is that autonomy is granted to the South Slavs, it'd be granted to a kind of uber-Croatia that is finally detatched from Hungary and is granted Dalamatia.

I've read about the United States idea, but I've heard it didn't have much popularity outside Franz Ferdinand's circle. Ferdinand himself advocated a kind of trialism with a South Slav crown to counter the Magyars. While the 1871 articles would've created that to an extent, it'd certainly later expand to a more federalist system.

There's also the issue of the smaller minorities such as the Slovaks and Italians, not mention the Romanians in Transylvania. One has to wonder if a more federalist system would even be viable. The Magyars themselves managed to use their obstinancy to bleed the military budget, and German generals complained in the years leading up to 1914 that their own federal system with significant autonomy for the various member states of the Empire such as Bavaria and ect (with their right to keep seperate armies) meant that there was far less money per capita for military use, than say in the unitary states such as France and Britain. I know a federalist system would go a long way to ease ethnic issues and perhaps produce a more stable government, but I wonder if the common government (that is finances, foreign affairs, the army) would be better off.
 
Top