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On Friday 31 October, Oene de Haan will defend his PhD dissertation ‘The Implementation of Reforms: The Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Kingdom of Prussia in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century’. In his thesis, De Haan explores what causes major reforms to succeed or fail.

Factors for success or failure of reforms

When you open a newspaper today, chances are high that it will contain an article about the necessity for or the failure or unworkability of a certain reform. Which factors actually determine the chances of success of a reform? And what can history teach us in this respect? De Haan answers these questions on the basis of the history of the land tax and land reforms in Austria, Bavaria, and Prussia in the first half of the nineteenth century.

These reforms were very comprehensive and complex: the area and value of millions of land plots had to be surveyed and calculated to determine an acceptable land tax and land property for all parties involved. De Haan has examined the entire reform process for each state: from the plan drawn up by the central government and the interests at stake, through to the work of surveyors and administrators. These officials had to negotiate with landowners and peasants to determine the amount of tax due or land property.

According to De Haan, the case studies illustrate that successful reforms required a competent central bureaucracy that initiated the reform. Second, each implementation only took off after a compromise had been achieved. Third and most importantly, the success of the implementation always depended on the access and grip of the bureaucracy at the local level.