Austria's Government
After World War I had ended, the Treaty of St. Germaine, signed with Austria on September 10, 1919, ended the Dual Monarchy, causing Hungary to become a separate state. Austria was also forced to give up its territories, including Hungary and the Balkan Territories. Also, most of the German provinces of the former empire became the Republic of Austria. Under the League of Nations, the Czechs and Slovaks formed a new nation, but at the same time, the League of Nations did not want Germany to become so large that it would disrupt the post- world war one power balance. Therefore, both the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of St. Germaine, prohibited Austria from joining Germany.
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One of the reasons why democracy was not successful in Austria was that it lacked experienced statesmen capable of leading a democratic government. In addition, the executive or the judiciary branches of Austria's government did not have much power because the Austrian Republic's constitution gave more power to the parliament. In addition, the electorates' division was exacerbated by the prohibition against voting a "split ticket," meaning that voters had to cast ballots for an entire list of candidates chosen by each party's secretary. This made cooperation between parties even more difficult, which further encouraged the population of Austria to divide into three political camps known as: pan-German nationalists, Conservative Catholics and Socialists. Social Democrats and conservative Christian Socialists always competed for political power, and planned terrorist gangs to harm and intimidate each other. Moreover, people showed more loyalty to these parties because they lacked a patriotic feeling for their state. Soon they also started to call Austria a Parteinstaat or a state of parties. Then in 1933, the Christian Socialist Engelbert Dollfuss became chancellor, and outlawed all political parties except his. He also led a campaign to eliminate all Social Democrats. From 1918 to 1938, the nation was known as the First Austrian Republic, but became a fascist state towards the end of this period under Dollfuss. However, he was assassinated by an unsuccessful Nazi coup in 1934, but was succeeded by another dictator, Kurt Schuschnigg. Therefore, democracy ceased to exist in Austria when the German Nazi party also pressured Austria, which led to its final collapse as Anschluss or joining with Germany. Then in 1938, Austria was annexed by Hitler.
©Navdeep Kaur |