U pozadini seljačke bune 1755. godine: prijedlozi za bolju hrvatsku javnu upravu
In the background of the peasant rebellion of 1755: proposals towards improvement of the Croatian public administration

Summary/Abstract: This essay analyses the impact of the peasant rebellion of 1755 on the public administration of Civil Croatia. The core of this essay is an examination of proposals towards administrative changes composed in October 1755 by a designated court committee and following an order by the royal committee of enquiry that was active in Croatia during the summer of that year. The author uses minutes of the court committee, a transliteration of which may be found in the appendix, as well as contemporary narrative and archival sources to examine possible infl uences that contributed towards the proposal of the administrative reform; analyses actual proposals and identifi es long-term consequences of the actions of both committees. The need to establish an outside, objective royal committee under the presidency of Count Michael Johann Althan suggests that the court in Vienna had little trust in the government of local estates and that it considered administrative changes a necessity. However, the committee in Croatia was not only a competitor but also a partner to many of the local estates, especially to those critical of the contemporary state of the Croatian public administration and of the abilities of those occupying highest positions. Thus the work of the committees stimulated discussions, consequences of which greatly surpassed the original intention of lowering regional tensions. The proposed changes were far more compromising than the much more radical suggestions off ered by contemporary critics, especially in relation to the preservation of the political power of Croatian estates within the then still mostly estate royal administration. Furthermore, their goal was primarily to reduce hindrances such as the accumulation of political and judicial power in the hands of individuals, and to attract capable persons into public service. Yet the course of later events leads towards a conclusion that it was precisely discussions and proposals created during 1755 and 1756 that established guidelines for later reforms under Maria Th eresa and Joseph II. Th ey also form the foundations of changes that, by the end of the eighteenth century, contributed towards the formation of a premodern administration in Civil Croatia. These changes include separation of the executive from the legislative power and establishment of conditions for the development of modern legal offcialdom.

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