Acta juris Hungarici, 1932 (1. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)

1932 / 3-4. szám - Autonomous municipal administration in Hungary. (A magyar önkormányzati közigazgatás.)

211 that the local Civil Service administered by the Counties has not only been important as an aid to the State administration but alsó has been of immense importance as forming a kind of guarantee that Constitutional rights are thus maintained. This opinion was maintained against the advocacy of many theorists in the forties of the last century when they advocated the new system of Parliamentary Government based on Ministerial responsibility and opposing views were then suecessfully urged so that the County system was maintained. As a result of such interchanges of views on this matter, there has slowly developed in Hungary a correct public opinion about self-government. In principle, it consists of 'direct and regular influence being exercised on the Central Executive Power by Local Authorities and it has gradually become a commonplace of Hungárián public life that it is in that manner that the nation herself participates in the ultimate exercise of the Executive Power. Accepting that theory, we must alsó accept, at the same time, the principle that the participation of the Nation in the exercise of this power over the Executive is not prejudicial to the sense of loyalty of the people to the conception of the Patherland as a whole. A great many Hungárián political writers are of opinion that the concept of self-government was somewhat distorted and obscured in Hungary because of the influence of the French and Belgian examples on our Legislature in 1842 and ignore the fact that our system of local self-government involves the performance of State administration. In view of our experiences, who can doubt that the most effective protection against bureaucracy is the direct participation of the citizens in the discharge of local exe cutive duties1? Everyone who has a clear conception of our system of local self-government will readly acknowledge its elevating effect on the morale of the Nation. The author of the Hungárián work „Nemzeti Állam" („National State") says on this matter: „In participating 14*