| Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria | |
| Coa Pic: | Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.svg |
| Coa Caption: | Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria |
| Coa Res: | 200px |
| House Type: | Unicameral |
| Foundation: | 1861 |
| Disbanded: | 1918 |
| Preceded By: | Estates of Galicia |
| Succeeded By: | Sejm of the Second Polish Republic |
| Leader1 Type: | Monarch |
| Leader1: | Charles I (1916–1918) |
| Leader2 Type: | Marshal |
| Leader2: | Stanisław Niezabitowski (1914–1918) |
| Seats: | 161 (150 until 1900) |
| Last Election1: | 1913 |
| Meeting Place: | Diet Building Lemberg (Polish: Lwów; Ukrainian: Lviv) |
The Diet of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and of the Grand Duchy of Cracow was the regional assembly of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, a crown land of the Austrian Empire, and later Austria-Hungary. In the history of the Polish parliaments, it is considered the successor of the former sejm walny, or general sejm of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and also of the sejmik, or local councils, in the territories of the Austrian Partition. It existed from 1861 until the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918.
The multi-ethnic nature of the Kingdom resulted in the diet having multiple different names. In German, the lingua franca of Cisleithania (north-western part of the monarchy), it was called Landtag von Galizien und Lodomerien, meaning 'Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria'.[1] In Polish, it was called either Sejm krajowy, meaning 'Sejm of the Land', or sejm lwowski, meaning 'Lwów Sejm'. In Ukrainian, it was called Га́лицький крайови́й сейм, transcribed Hálytsʹkyy krayovýy seym, meaning 'Sejm of Galicia'.
Landtag is a German word that means 'regional assembly', or 'diet'. In Polish and Ukrainian, the word used was Sejm (the latter also used version Sojm).
Parts of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Lesser Poland territories were included in the Austrian partition as early as the First Partition of Poland in 1772. From about 1775 to 1848, with several gaps, the crown land of Galicia had a relatively powerless parliamentary body, known originally as the Postulate Sejm (Polish: sejm postulatowy), and from 1817, as Estates of Galicia (Polish: stany galicyjskie). The Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria, which was formed in 1861 following the promulgation of the October Diploma by Emperor Franz Joseph I, had more real power than its predecessors.[2] In Polish parliamentary tradition, it is considered to have continued the history of the general sejm and regional sejmiks on the lands of Lesser Poland and Ruthenia.
The Diet was initially dominated by Polish nobles, but in time, it saw the emergence of a strong peasant faction. Another notable change over time included the emergence of a Ruthenian (modern Ukrainian) bloc, changing the balance of power within the body. Overall, the Diet preserved the Polish parliamentary tradition during a time in which it waned in the Prussian Partition and the Russian Partition, and saw the emergence of the major political parties and groupings that were to dominate the political life of the Second Polish Republic after World War I. The leader of the Polish peasant movement in the Second Polish Republic, Wincenty Witos, gained his experience in the Diet, elected for the first time in 1908. Similarly, the National Democrats, and the Polish socialists, had their political blocs in the diet around that time.
As established by the February Patent of 1861, the Diet was unicameral, and was made up of 150 deputies.[3] All but nine were elected by four different "Curiae", or assemblies of the social classes. An electoral system based on curiae was also used in the Imperial Council of Cisleithania, until 1907.
This system of limited suffrage caused the predominantly Polish landowning class to dominate the Diet.[4] Whilst they only made up about 0.4% of the population, they held 28.2% of the seats in the Diet. Small-scale rural landowners, on the other hand, made up about 95% of the population, but held only 52.3% of the seats in Diet. This system also skewed representation for different ethnicities in the Diet. Whilst Ruthenians made up about 40% of the population of Galicia, they only held 15% of the seats in the Diet, as they lived primarily in rural communities. Reform of the suffrage system in late 1913 added a fifth curia for the upper peasantry, which had the right to elect twenty deputies. Due to the outbreak of the First World War, no further elections to the Diet took place, and hence the fifth curia existed only on paper.
Elections were not held on a regular schedule; they occurred usually every five to six years, upon Emperor's decree. Thus the deputies' term of office lasted about six years. The Diet had ten elections: 1861, 1867, 1870, 1877, 1883, 1889, 1889, 1895, 1901, 1908, and the final one, in 1913.
At first, the deputies met in the Skarbek Theatre (today Maria Zankovetska National Academic Ukrainian Drama Theater). From 1881, the Diet met in a newly constructed building designed by architect Juliusz Hochberger and with a program of architectural sculpture by Teodor Rygier. The building is now owned by the University of Lviv.
In the period of 1861 to 1873, the Diet elected 38 representatives from among its deputies to be sent to the Imperial Council of Cisleithania.
The Diet had legislative powers. The legislative initiative was possessed by the Emperor, along with the Diet executive (six deputies and the Marshal), and all individual deputies. It could debate and pass laws related to many issues in the field of education, culture, welfare, justice, public works, administration, religion and military. It could also impose supplementary taxes, up to 10% of the direct tax.
See also: Marshal of the Sejm. The position of 'Marshal' was equivalent to the position of 'Speaker' in Westminster-style parliaments. The Marshal was considered the presiding officer of the Diet.
Notable members of the Diet of Galicia and Lodomeria include: