Emlékszám Az 1848-49-es forradalom és szabadságharc tiszteletére - Baranya. Történelmi és honismereti folyóirat. 11-12. évfolyam (1998-1999)

Pálmány Béla: Az első népképviseleti országgyűlési választások Magyarországon

THE FIRST PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN HUNGARY B. Pálmány More than 560 thousand liberated villains participated and elected 450 representatives in Hungary at the end of June and in the confederated Transsylvania in July 1848. The first part of the paper summarises, based on earlier research, the results of the new election law and classifies the wealth and education level of the voters. The author emphasises that the law was the most liberal in Central-Europe: without census it gave right to vote to the weak honoratior rank (intelligentsia without a noble origin) and made no differentiation based on national or religious differences. The second chapter publishes data on the first time on the social strata of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The results shows that the earlier Marxists view was untrue declaring that the Hungarian aristocracy had been against the Revolution and loyal to the Hapsburgs. Earlier results showed the majority of the representatives came from the gentry stratum; this paper state precisely their number to 350 (76.6%), while the clergy was represented with 14 persons (3.1%o). There were 85 (18.6%) representatives from cities, which was a significant number; among them there were only five factory owners, craftsmen or merchants, and the number of the representatives of non-noble intelligentsia reached as many as 30. There were only one liberated villain and two noblemen without land and living the peasants' life. New research gave precise numbers of the representatives of ethnic minorities. There were 62-65 of these (the earlier calculated number was less than 50), but since the minorities gave two-third of the population they were under-represented (14%).