玛丽亚·特蕾西亚的“开明专制”改革与奥地利的近代化转型

Maria Theresa’s Enlightened Absolutism Reform and the Modern Transformation of Austria

18世纪40年代,奥地利新君主玛丽亚·特蕾西亚在启蒙哲学感召和内外交困形势逼迫下,接受“开明专制”理念,开启了奥地利的近代化转型。这种近代化转型体现为玛丽亚·特蕾西亚抛弃哈布斯堡家族的宗教虔敬传统,接受启蒙哲学和官房主义的新治国理念,将新的统治理念注入执政实践中,在多个领域进行改革。玛丽亚·特蕾西亚推行的改革对于奥地利国家和社会的近代化转型产生了重大影响。她推行的行政管理改革和军事改革提升了奥地利的国家治理效能;促进经济发展的改革政策繁荣了国家经济,奠定了提升民众生活水平的物质基础;农业和财税领域的改革使社会关系破除传统等级制度的藩篱,促进传统社会向更平等的近代公民社会转型;教育改革则使奥地利迈入了教育和科学文化的繁盛时代。与此同时,作为专制君主,玛丽亚·特蕾西亚的统治不乏承续传统的痕迹,其推行的改革带有一种明显的新旧交替的印记,一种传统与现代混合的特征。

In the 1740s,the new Austrian monarch,Maria Theresa,who was inspired by the Enlightenment philosophy and forced by the situation of domestic and foreign difficulties,accepted the concept of‘Enlightened Absolutism ’ and started the modern transformation of Austria. This modern transformation was reflected in the facts that Maria Theresa abandoned the religious piety tradition of the House of Habsburg,accepted the new governing concept of the Enlightenment philosophy and Cameralism,put new ruling ideas into ruling practice,and carried out the reform in various fields.Maria Theresa’s reform had a significant impact on the modernisation of the Austrian state and society.Her administrative and military reforms improved the effectiveness of the Austrian governance;her policies to promote the economic development have prospered the national economy and laid a material foundation for improvement of the standard of people’s living;social relations broke through the barriers of traditional hierarchies in virtue of reforms in areas of agriculture and finance and taxation,which promoted the traditional society to transform into a more equal modern civil society;educational reforms enabled Austria to enter a prosperous era of education and scientific culture. At the same time,as an autocratic monarch,Maria Theresa’s rule had traces of tradition. Her reform was obviously marked by the alternation of the old and the new,characterised by the mixture of tradition and modernity.