Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 25. (1996)

TANULMÁNYOK - Tóth Árpád: Hivatali szakszerűsödés és a rendi minták követése 27-60

ÁRPÁD TÓTH THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OFFICIAL PROFESSIONALISM AND THE CONTINUATION OF FEUDAL EXAMPLES SUMMARY The work attempts to analyze the socio-historical process of professionalization among Pest's officials during the second quarter of the 19th century, on the eve of the bourgeois revolution, and the period just prior to the town's becoming the capital and a modern urban metropolis. The city's administrative representative from among the official elite is described, demonstrating his gradual progress and increasing duration of service before gaining membership in the Senate, showing clearly, in a Weberian sense, the rise of bureaucratic rationalization. There is also some data on the educational profile of the officials that imply an emerging professionalization. However, the continued pursuit of some feudal social patterns, i. e. the tendency among officials in Pest to emulate the nobility in social status, both to become a nobleman and to marry within the nobi-lity, reflect a traditional view on social intercourse. The economic strategy they represented also implies an attitude cha-racterized mainly by the need for security rather than risking for profit. The predominant historical references analyzed by the author are inventory lists recorded after the death of an official. 60