Bureaucracy and Civil Servants in Austria II 1848 - 1914

The study at hand is a sequel to a first volume "Obedient Rebels. Bureaucracy and Civil Servants in Austria, 1780 - 1848". It investigates the developments of the Cisleithanian (Austrian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) bureaucracy between 1848 and 1914, especially regarding questions of social and political change. The term bureaucracy is to be conceived in a twofold meaning: for one as the institution, but also as a group of people which is composed of the civil servants. According to Norbert Elias one always influences the other. The study emphasises the high civil service. The period to be analysed is to be divided in two units. The first period comprises the years from 1848 up to1867, the non-constitutional age, in which the Government and Emperor emphasise the modernising process by administration and bureaucracy transforming them into institutions of great power. The officials remained in a subservient position, even though their elites - highly educated and liberal - at the end helped to overthrow absolutism. The second period covers the constitutional period (1867 - 1914). The high ranking civil servants were given new rights but at the same time gained new problems. The power, given to them by the apparatus enabled them to widen their influence, but by the new constitution of 1867 the civil servants remained, foremost, committed to the Emperor and not to the State. Francis Joseph, brought up in the traditions of the Habsburgs and in the theories of Justus Lipsius (the early modern age philosopher had great influence on the questions of officialdom and was a favourite at court) required complete sovereignty on all decisions concerning civil servants as well as their undisputable loyalty to his majesties person and not to the institutions, government or parliament. This meant that each civil servant wanting to take part in politics (like being involved in parties, parliament and modern movements) had to endure a conflict of interests. Later on this conflict of loyalties was aggravated by the rise of the mass parties (Christian Social Party, Social Democrats, right wing German Nationalists) and the explosion of the nationalist-question. Each official stood between Emperor and State, nation and parties. Each personal leaning determined their career and their private standing. Economically, as well as socially, the civil servants drew profits from all the national movements and parties who wanted to assure their votes and their work. In the chapter "Soziales Umfeld" ("Social sphere") the culture of everyday life is analysed in office (recruitment, routine, hierarchy, qualification, career etc.) as well as in private life (income, social habits, education, marriage, family, etc.). The cultural habits they developed reveals the bureaucracy as the typical cultural elite (P. Bordieu) of considerable reputation within the social framework - in spite of their moderate income. Particularly after the turn of the century a young self-confident generation surfaced: developing unusual interests and following remarkable new ways. The world of bureaucracy became more colourful. The differentiation of the once homogenous world of the civil service increased. The perception of the social group bureaucracy from the outside (Fremdwahrnehmung) is reconstructed from the descriptions of writers and poets, interesting testimonies as bureaucracy is an important subject in Austrian literature. The self-perception is evident in the numerous memoirs and autobiographies of various officials. This self-perception with particular emphasis on knowledge, qualities and virtues they expected of themselves is (naturally) strongly diverging from the perception from the outside. Both characterised an important phenomenon: the "josephinische Ethik" - once designed as catechism for bureaucrats by Joseph II (1783) - was still accepted as guideline by the civil servants and remained still in use until the end of the Monarchy. These ethical standards comprised a distinct concept of the rule of law, unconditional law-abidingness and a strong notion of social welfare. This basic position enabled the bureaucracy in such a complex society, wracked by diverse crisis, to cope with its various problems. It was bureaucracy which guaranteed a high quality of law-certainty. It was not the ideal of bureaucracy in the sense of Max Weber. But in the sense of Niklas Luhmann bureaucracy operated quite well in practice developing unusual strategies, to solve the problems in an increasing complex and vast society. The influence of this specific bureaucratic culture on politics was crucially reinforced between 1848 and 1914 when almost half of the ministerial posts as well as 17 out of 26 Prime Ministers were recruited within the higher ranks of bureaucracy. As the title of my study "Josephinische Mandarine" suggests, the bureaucratic elites took advantage of the opportunities offered by the new constitutional State and turned from "obedient rebels" (representing in the time up till 1848) into the decision making class of the Empire.