Abstract
In the final decades of the 19th century Nagyvárad became a progressive, dominant town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s Kingdom of Hungary. The town’s prosperity overlapped with the emergence of the Hungarian civil institutional system, the founding of modern parliamentarism. The question is whether the town played a role in the new Hungarian House of Representatives in proportion to its weight or not. To what extent did Nagyvárad have the opportunity to be represented in accordance with its interests? The study reviews the role of Nagyvárad in the House of Representatives from two perspectives. The first is that the city is represented by only one person in the House of Representatives consisting of 413 (later 415) members. We examine to what extent Nagyvárad stands out from the other towns with a single mandate (Arad, Temesvár, Hódmezővásárhely, Kassa, Pécs, Győr, etc.) and to what extent it would fit with towns with several mandates (Debrecen, Kolozsvár, Miskolc, Marosvásárhely, Brassó, Nagyszeben, etc.). In the second half of the study, we examine the individual weight, party affiliation, and quality of individuals representing the town. We find an answer to the question of whether Nagyvárad belonged to the ranks of pro-government or rather opposition towns. Finally, we present a short biography of the politicians.
Highlights
The study reviews the role of Nagyvárad in the House of Representatives from two perspectives
The question of how the city fits into the framework of the institutional system at the beginning of modern parliamentarism has not yet come within the scope of historical interest
I discuss the representatives in terms of individual quality and party affiliation
Summary
Note: Adapted from Nagyvárad krónikája by J. The town’s occasional political appreciation was not due to the political institutions but rather the consequence of the connections between various public figures of the given period This statement can be maintained even if one is aware of Nagyvárad having been the constituency and “political heartland” of Prime Minister Kálmán Tisza, who consolidated the Dualist system in the long run. In the Dualist Era, the constituencies were set up in virtue of Articles 5 and 7 of the Act of 1848 which listed 40 towns, each having one parliamentary seat; Várad-Újváros and VáradOlaszi elected one representative together. The changes in the population of small towns are shown in Table 4.) Among the Transylvanian towns with one parliamentary seat, only two, Brassó (Brașov) and Nagyszeben (Sibiu), were elevated by Article 10 of the Act of 1877; these towns could elect two representatives. Changes in population and number of voters in towns with two or more parliamentary seats, 1869–1910
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