engleski

Autonomy, dependence and modern reforms in Croatia 1848-1918

Croatia has been associated with Hungary since the beginning of the 12th century when the empty Croatian throne was occupied by the Hungarian Arpád dynasty. However, political subjectivity of the land did not disappear as Croatia preserved its own institutions and nobility that become a basis for development of a distinct Croatian constitutional identity. The inherited” institution of the Ban (chief executive official) and the legislative Sabor (Diet) that developed in the 13th century have kept effective up to 1918. Continuity of autonomous institutions was preserved only in the Kingdoms of Croatia-Slavonia because region of Dalmatia was annexed by Venice at the beginning of the 15th century (and by the Habsburgs in 1813) while part of the Croatian-Slavonian territory that bordered with the Ottoman Empire was put under direct Austrian military administration at the beginning of the 17th century (Military Border). The return of those territories to Croatia become an important goal of the national politics in the 19th century but only the Military Border was reincorporated in 1871 and 1882. Introduction of modern institutions in Croatia-Slavonia begun with moderate reforms of the Croatian Diet in 1848 but was severely intensified by imposition of the reforms from Vienna in the periods of the false constitutionalism 1849-1851 and absolutism 1852-1860. Provisory constitutionalism 1861-1867 saw desperate but unsuccessful attempts of the Sabor to replace imposed laws by autonomous legislation, on the basis of the same models. However, systematic modernisation was enabled only after the Croatian – Hungarian Compromise of 1868 was concluded as it set down a stabile institutional framework of the Croatian autonomy. Apart of that the Compromise was bitterly criticised in Croatia because it provided for indirect but effective control functions to the Common (Hungarian) Government. Apart of the institutional arrangements political constellation in Croatia and Hungary as well as in Croatian-Hungarian political relations also affected factual reach of the Croatian autonomy and reflected on intensity and content of the modernisation.

constitutional history; autonomy; centre and periphery

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