A Laboratory of Nationality Policy: The Idea of National-Personal Autonomy from the Habsburg Empire to the Interwar Period

This lecture explores the origins of a political idea dealing with national conflicts in multi-ethnic societies, namely national-personal autonomy. The concept means self-rule for a given ethnic group and all its registered members. Essentially, the idea serves as a third way between individual national rights and territorial autonomy. National-personal autonomy developed in the Habsburg Empire in both practice and in theory: Three provinces enacted national-personal autonomy legislation at the beginning of the 20th century; at the same time, liberal legal scholars as well as Austro-Marxist theoreticians sketched the pros and cons of such a solution for the entire Empire. Together with an exploration of the idea within the Dual Monarchy, my talk traces the transfer and adaptation of this principle in Eastern Europe during the Interwar period. National-personal autonomy was discussed within three different political currents: liberal, leftist and rightist. Furthermore, it changed from a system for organizing a multi-ethnic state into a protection tool for minorities – which is how national-personal autonomy is largely perceived and used today.

Börries Kuzmany is currently an Erwin-Schrödinger-Fellow at CEU IAS. He is working on a project entitled “Theory, Practice and Transfer of National Personal Autonomy in the Habsburg Empire and the Interwar Period”. Before coming to Budapest, Kuzmany studied history and Russian philology in Vienna, Paris and Moscow and received his Ph.D. as a joint degree in history and German studies at the University of Vienna and the University Paris Sorbonne. In 2011 he published two monographs with Böhlau Press, which have been awarded five international prizes.