The Government of the Dalai Lama

Abstract

Austria was ruled by 30 persons, according to the current joke: Ludwig, Metternich and Kolowrat made 3, plus a zero for Emperor Ferdinand ¹. The trouble with the new government was not only a question of who or how many ruled, but how they ruled. To Kolowrat it was a “government of the Dalai Lama”, with Ferdinand representing the remote and mystic ruler who was often a child, and the ministers ruling as “his priests” ². What was worse, two of the abuses of the previous reign were soon rampant again among high government leaders: preoccupation with trivialities on the one hand, disunity, conflict and rivalry on the other. A characteristic example of the first is the minutes of a conference session devoted to one subject only. The document is entitled:

Conferenz-Protokoll, September 16, 1835 Report by the royal-Hungarian Hofkanzler, announcing that Franz Schedel has been elected secretary of the Hungarian learned society ³.