From revolution to the formation of classes

While the Monarchy suffered defeats in foreign policy – such as the loss of territories in Italy, the Lesser German solution with the formation of the North German League of 1866 – and had to agree to the Hungarian Compromise of 1867, the weaknesses of Austrian internal politics were exposed in the working out of the constitution. Not all levels of society nor all the Crown Lands were to profit equally from the constitution. The formation of elites and the exclusion of the greater part of the population from the franchise were characteristic of this inadequate social policy. The bourgeoisie’s belief in progress was purely economic in orientation. Growth in trade, optimization of profits, and increased production became the maxims governing all the activities of the mercantile middle class, and these were accompanied by increasing industrialization in the area of production. Investments in factories and machinery turned Vienna into an important centre for the modern cotton and silk industry, which brought significant profits to the entrepreneurs. But this economically favourable development also had its darker side. The workers, who in any case were earning low wages under very difficult conditions, were being put out of work by the increasing use of machines. This kind of liberal economic policy had evidently distanced itself greatly from the social goals formulated in the popular uprisings of 1848. For the peasantry the revolutionary phase had already come to an end with the abolition of serfdom in the autumn of 1848. The representatives of the aristocracy and the middle class had found a new role as investors in the industrial sector. The workers, who had been a third force in the Revolution, were left empty-handed for the time being. And the discrepancy between the almost destitute workers and the (early) capitalist middle class continued to grow.

The situation deteriorated regarding the matter of the franchise, with the middle classes opposed to universal franchise and any political participation by the working class. Socio-political measures of benefit to the proletariat, such as regulations concerning statutory holidays and fixed working hours, were introduced only gradually. But equal entitlement to political participation for this social group in the form of universal, equal, direct and secret male suffrage was only achieved following a campaign of demonstrations at the beginning of the 20th century.