Page - 27 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

otto bauer andhis time 27 constitutionwouldyieldpositiveresultsforitsstrategicgoals.TheAustrianpar- liamentary traditionwasveryweak, and the systemof socialpartnership still immature. In July 1920, Bauer anticipatedanoutbreakof social conflicts and optimistically hoped for a reinvigorated co-operationbetween thebourgeois bloc and the Social Democrats. He hoped that thiswould culminate in new socio-political reformstotheadvantageof the industrialworkingclass,which wasacrudemiscalculation.66BecauseLowerAustriahadbeenconstitutionally targetedas anautonomous land, Social-Democratic influencewas limited to thecapitalandChristianSocialandGreaterGermaninfluencewasfortifiedin theprovinces.At the July 1920partycongress,Bauer statedthatAustriacould not be a socialist oasis in capitalist Europe. Thiswas a legitimate argument, yetitalsodemonstratedthevulnerabilityoftheworkers’partyunderchanging socio-politicalcircumstances. The elections held on 17October 1920 according to the new constitution, which the Christian Social Party won, validated the sdap’s impotence. No longer lookingtocompromisewiththesocialists, its leaders formedacabinet ofofficialsunder theauthorityofMichaelMayr.67 In this situation, theSocial DemocratshadnochoicebuttojointheoppositionalongwiththeGreaterGer- mans,whose support the sdap fought for in vain. Theonly commonground between these two parties was their agreement on the Anschluss question, whichwasnowobsolete.TheGreaterGermanshadadifferentelectoralbase– thearistocracy,bigcapital,andpartofthebourgeoisie–andcultivatedamon- archist and nationalist orientation. During this period, Bauer did not doubt for a second that the chosen tacticwas correct, that power could be recap- tured, and that the parliamentarymajority could bewon. These prognoses were not entirely unsubstantiated: after the 1923 elections, when the Social Democrats increasedtheirnumberofseats inparliamentbysixmandates, the partywasbut300,000votesshortofexercisingpoweronitsown.However, the domesticsituationmadetherealisationofBauer’sgoalimpossible.Itwaschar- acterisedbygrowingunemployment, hyperinflation, and increasingpolitical apathy. Furthermore, societywas increasinglypolariseddue todispossession ofpartsof thepettybourgeoisie,whichtiltedthebalance infavourofbigcap- ital.Conflictsbetweentheparamilitaryformationsofdifferentpartieswerenot unusual. 66 SeeBauer1920. 67 In these elections, the Christian Socials won 79mandates, the Social Democrats won 62, theGreaterGermans 18, thePeasantParty6, and independents 1 – seeZöllner 1979, p.502.