Institutional Analysis of the Integration of Rzeczpospolita Lands in-to the Russian and Austrian Empires

Abstract

The article studies the collapse of Rzeczpospolita and the admission of its parts into the Russian and Austrian Empires to understand through the institutionalist approach the consequences of reformatting the geopolitical space, namely, implantation of the debris of the collapsed society into another social system. It reveals the mechanisms of the fusion of donor and recipient societies. They include unification – the integration of new territories into the legal and administrative-territorial organization of the acceptor country. This mechanism proceeds through several stages: initial, implying the creation of hybrid institutions (implementation of the new authorities into the pre-existing system of power); secondary, when the institutional transplants are rebuilt with the simultaneous foundation of intermediate institutions); final (the ultimate restructuring of power following the new model). A vital instrument of unification is constituted by estate homogenization or the alignment of the social organization of the new lands and the acceptor society. Besides, among the mechanisms of integration, there are conditionality (positive, or stimulating, for extending the social base of transfor mations as well as negative, intended to curb resentment), substitution (admission of representatives of the acceptor society to the higher estate of the new lands), socialization (measures to culturally homogenize the united social system). Despite the similarity of the employed mechanisms, there is a difference in the integration models applied by the Russian and Austrian Empires, which is due to the specificities of the state organization and national structure of these empires as well as the geographical location and the level of economic development of the acquired territories. The distinctive feature of the Russian approach to homogenization of the new lands with the rest of the empire was transplantation of economic, political, and social-cultural institutions to the acquired territories with preservation of some pre-existing endemic economic institutions. The Austrian policy was haracterized by asymmetrical and limited institutional transplantations (only political institutions) to the new province, which turned the region into a virtual inner colony. The meaning of the chosen integration model for the later development of the integrated lands is also discussed.