Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/230

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INTERNAL CRISIS AND COLLAPSE
223

a Parliamentary tactician; Tisza the younger was a political athlete. The individuality of the father made the functioning of his system more easy, whereas the personality of his son rendered it more difficult. Both of them were absolutely determined to control their party and their Cabinet, and suffered no interference and could only bear individual independent personailties with difficulty. Both wanted to make the party which they controlled all-powerful in the State, on the English pattern. They wanted to do so without the English decentralization, without the English public opinion, without the English law, and without the freedom and the independence of Englishmen. The individual qualities of Koloman Tisza hid his despotism and made him bearable. The nature of Stefan Tisza, on the other hand, made it more difficult to endure this system. In addition, Koloman Tisza was popular, while he was the leader of the Opposition, and with this enormous backing he gained the leadership of the Government. Stefan Tisza, however, began his political career at a time when the star of his father began to wane in the political sky, a fact which made Stefan Tisza's position more difficult. He was never in the Opposition, and he shared from the first moment of his appearance the unpopularity of the Government party. He personified from his youth onwards the idea of party monopoly.

Wekerle's Government, which had been formed from the Opposition which gained the majority after Tisza's election, was turned out when the bank question arose.