Josip Juraj Strossmayer’s “Political Morality” in the Context of Croatian-Hungarian Relations in the 1860s and early 1870s

Abstract

Josip Juraj Strossmayer is a major political figure in nineteenth century Croatian history, and he represents the archetype of a cleric-politician. As one of the ideologists of the Croatian People’s Party (the narodniaks), he advocated the reconstruction of the Habsburg monarchy on a federalist basis and considered the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia to be politically equal not only with Hungary, but also with Austria. Interested in religious philosophy, Strossmayer developed a “code of honour” for a narodniak-politician, based on political morality. Such morality was based on the “crystal” honesty of the people's representative towards himself and the voters, which meant following his principles to the end. In practice, the main criterion for compliance with this morality was the defence of the rights of the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia, and more broadly the southern Slavs of the Habsburg monarchy in relation to Hungary and Austria; in other words, every manner of resistance to Magyarisation and Germanisation. He followed this principle himself throughout the entire period of his major political activity (1860–1873), which eventually led to his disillusionment with politics and the realization of his own powerlessness to influence the situation in unfavourable political conditions in the Monarchy. Nevertheless, despite personal political setbacks and the associated attacks of political opponents in the press, he didn’t depart from his beliefs, but remained faithful to them, even when they ceased to be shared by the majority of his party colleagues. Croatian-Hungarian relations after 1868 he considered far from the ideal of political morality, mainly because of their inequality.