East Galician conservatives in the face of changes in the electoral law to the Austrian State Council (1893–1906)

Abstract

The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Austria-Hungary involved numerous political and social conflicts. Growing democratic tendencies resulted in draft bills being drawn up aimed at making voting rights universal. Since 1893 the conservatives from Galicia criticised the institution of universal suffrage on the grounds of anti-democratism and elitism. Of importance were also ethnic issues, in particular the fear of an increase in the number of deputies of Ukrainian nationality. Also in 1906, during the next parliamentary debate, conservatives expressed views against the reform of the electoral law. The article presents the position of Podolian conservatives through the speeches by their delegates in the Vienna parliament as well as the statements made in the press and in book publications.