The Dilemma of Policy

The Agrarian Policy of Engelbert Dollfuß

Abstract

The world economic crisis at the beginning of the 1930s caused a fundamental structural change of the Western industrial society, accompanied by a fundamental crisis of agriculture. These economic crises promoted the dilemma between the interests of producers and those of consumers. Engelbert Dollfuß’ agrarian policy followed an ‘agrarian path’ of market policy in order to stabilize the prices of agricultural goods. However, especially in the alpine regions peasant protests were oriented against the democratic system. Although the protests were diffused, they were partly instrumented by the Nazi movement.