National Autonomy within Multinational States.

In the declining Austro-Hungarian Empire, Otto Bauer's work "The Nationalities Question and Social Democracy" (1907) appeared, within the Marxist political thought about the concept of nation, as a theoretical proposal about the issue of peripheral nationalisms. On the eve of the First World War, the Habsburg monarchy was facing a crisis of identity, in which Czechs, Croats, Poles and others were aspiring to more autonomy, and in some cases, to independence. It was in this context that Bauer presented socialism as a solution to the question of nationalities, particularly in Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is the aim of this paper to analyse Bauer's theory of nation, not merely within Austro-Marxism thinking and the political context of the Habsburg Empire in early 20th century, but more particularly with the aspiration of highlighting constructive ideas of multiculturalism presented by this author, applied to potentially explosive situations in terms of ethnic or nationalist conflict. Furthermore, which features of his theory can be linked to political and institutional nation-building processes? Does Bauer's theory can still have interest for the study of the national question? These are the questions to which this paper will try to give an answer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]