Page - 346 - in Österreich-Ungarns imperiale Herausforderungen - Nationalismen und Rivalitäten im Habsburgerreich um 1900

© 2020, V&R unipress GmbH, Göttingen ISBN Print: 9783847110606 – ISBN E-Lib: 9783737010603 often at the expense of theHungarian gentry, and in the formof lastingback- wardnessof theHungarian-inhabitedregions,whosetargeteddevelopmentthat started around1900hadnot yielded significant results so far), and the central governmentwas not ready to acknowledge or capable to resolve them, due to their lackofknowledgeof the region’s realities.42 Thecombinationoftheprospectoflastingirrelevanceinnationalpoliticsand the real concern over the problems of Transylvania gave way to the idea of reconfigurationofthecenter-peripheryrelations,relaxationofthecentralization of theHungarian state, anda specific treatment ofTransylvaniaby the central government.Whiletheallianceneverexplainedhowitwouldhaveimaginedthe new,regionalistadministrationof theprovince, itgaveelaboratedprogramson how toresolve the impendingproblems.43 Withoutgoingintodetails, let itsufficetooutlinehowtheregionalistswanted to reconfigure center-periphery relations.While they advocated further state- drivendevelopmenteffortsintheSz8kelyland,theirmostimportantdemandwas larger influence of local politicians on the decisions concerningTransylvania. Theproblems, theyargued, couldonlyberesolvedbypeoplewhohadthenec- essary knowledge on local conditions, who were aware of the real nature of threats, andwho couldorganize the region’sHungarian society into aunitary onewhichwouldwork for the commongoal ofmodernization: educating and elevating the peasantry, fostering a new industrial base with the help of the naturalgasresources,buildingnewrailways,andspreadingmodernagricultural techniques. Logically, the administration needed a thorough reform, too; this reformwasmainly professionalization, just like politics was broadening suf- frage.Regionalistsdemandedunconditionalsupportofthegovernmentfortheir ownprojectsasitwasthoughttobetheonlywaytosavetheprovincefromfalling intothehandsof theRomanians,but,ontheotherhand,at leastuntil1917, they didnotadvocate for the legaldiscriminationagainstRomanians.44 With this reasoning they cunningly avoided the task of elaborating on the nature of provincial self-governance, not least because thememberswerediv- ided in this regard. The farthest they went was in 1917 with the idea of the appointmentofagovernmentcommissarywithextensiveexecutivepowerwho would have acted as a governor. Nevertheless, somemembers of the Alliance publiclyadvocatedakindofregionalautonomy,andtheargumentsemployedin thisregardresembledtheclassicargumentationofmost regionalistmovements thataimedtodistanceaterritory fromacountry,andnotonthebasisofethnic 42 B#rdi, Az erd8lyi (see note 9); Egry, Regionalizmus (see note 39), p. 8, 13–14; Lengyel, Niedergang(seenote9),p. 62–71. 43 Formoredetails seeB#rdi,Azerd8lyi (seenote9). 44 Egry,Regionalizmus(seenote39),p. 9–13.;Lengyel,Niedergang(seenote9),p. 71–84. GáborEgry346