Antal Tamás: A tanácsrendszer és jogintézményei Szegeden 1950-1990 - Dél-Alföldi évszázadok 26. (Szeged, 2009)

IDEGEN NYELVŰ ÖSSZEFOGLALÁSOK

SUMMARY THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE COUNCIL SYSTEM IN SZEGED (1950-1990) The scholarly study and analysis of the Hungarian council system (1950-1990) as a system of institutions and structure of public administration is a novel challenge rarely attempted at to date in the field of the history of public administration: although the period of 40 years under study is still a "grey area" for legal historians, there are already researchers and experts who "venture" into this territory. In addition to offering a historical overview, the present work also analyses the life and operation of public administration in a specific historical and legal period from legal and adminisrative aspects. The reason being that the council system, although probably still to be subjected to much debate and criticism, was definitely a possible form of the Hungarian public administration and today it constitutes an integral part of the history of the 20th century. Therefore it has to be written and spoken about as it has left a legacy and experience of four decades both in theory and in practice. Learning about the system of councils with its complex operation is also indispensable to people of our days for the reason that notwithstanding all kinds of political slogans, it constitutes an unavoidable part of the 20th century history of Eastern-Central Europe and Hungary immediately preceding the present constitutional system. With all its merits and disadvantages, it was one possible model for the structure and institutional system of public administration, without value judgement. It is important to emphasize this as every country needs a network of public administration institutions at all times, without which society would be incapable of operating. The present fragmented structure of local governments is not without faults, and neither were the councils - however, both operated/operate and organized/organize the citizens' and communities' life. This is why it is important to study them not only with the methods of public history but also with those of legal history. This monograph may contribute to this and may bring this era closer to the young people of our age, who know them by repute at most. First of all, the council acts must be mentioned. In order to understand the results of research, it is indispensable to be familiar — at least roughly — with the regulation of the council system, modelled on Soviets, by acts and decrees. The workers' and peasants' councils themselves (Soviets) were organized in Russia at the time of the first bourgeois democratic revolution (1905-1906), then they gained importance in 1917 in the period of "double power", and finally they first appeared as constitutional institutions in the Soviet-Russian constitution of 1918. This system of public administration was adopted by all the subsequent Soviet constitutions (1924, 1936, 1977) and also by the newly-established left-wing systems in Eastern-Central Europe