Original scientific paper
Dr. Ivo Pilar's Lecture, Held on the Premises of the Austrian Political Association on 12th October 1918, Within the Context of His Concepts of the Constitutional Reform of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
Zoran GRIJAK
; Hrvatski institut za povijest, Zagreb
Abstract
During his political engagement, until October 1918, Dr. Ivo Pilar
advocated the realisation of the programme of the Croatian Party of Rights
from 1894. The programme implied — on the basis of Croatian state law —
uniting the Croatian lands, including Bosnia and Herzegovina. During
World War I, Ivo Pilar disclosed this programme in his letters and
memoranda to Austro-Hungarian state leaders. However, at the end of
1918, when it was entirely certain that the Monarchy would lose the war,
Pilar outlined a new plan of its constitutional reform. The aforementioned
change in Pilar's constitutional concepts is illustrated by the author with his
comparison of the two documents: Pilar's “Promemoria” (August 1917) to
Emperor and King Karl I (Charles IV) and his “Document” to the count
István Tisza (September 1918) with his lecture held on the premises of the
Austrian Political Association on 12th October 1918. As opposed to the first
two documents — which are an expression of Pilar's years-long political
programme of creating a Croatian state entity within the triadically, i.e.
subdualistically reformed Monarchy — the views — expressed in his
lecture on the premises of the Austrian Political Association, concerning the
proposition of the constitutional reform of the Monarchy — are mainly
altered, adapted to extremely unfavourable political circumstances of the
Monarchy. In his lecture, Pilar advocated the federal reform of the Austro-
Hungarian Monarchy in which one of the federal entities would be
Südslawien (South Slavia), based on the principle of autonomy. According
to the author, the reason why Pilar abandoned his earlier concepts of the
constitutional reform of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy lies in his
conviction that the Allied Powers would at best accept the federal
Monarchy, reformed according to the principle of autonomy.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
66654
URI
Publication date:
4.12.2007.
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