Tanulmányok Budapest Múltjából 28. (1999) – Urbanizáció a dualizmus korában: konferencia Budapest egyesítésének 125. évfordulója tiszteletére a Budapesti Történeti Múzeumban

A VÁROSI ÁTALAKULÁS KÉRDÉSEI ÉS SZÍNTEREI - Horváth J. András: Új emberek az Újvárosházán – az egyesített főváros első közgyűlésének társadalmi összetétele 23-52

sonal interest. During their term of office, they considered the interests of Budapest as a whole most of the time, but there were also examples when the municipal interest was violated due to an excessive assertion of interests within the representatives' particular city districts. The presentation also explains that even though the principle of proportional representation of the three parts of the town was observed at the time of the unification according to the law, this still inevitably meant a loss of importance for the Buda representatives, considering the total number of assembly members coming from the three different parts of the city. In the mixture of the new assembly, one can increasingly feel both the remarkable economic boom of the period of the compromise, and the social change in the wake of it, involving the town elite as well. Due to the incumbent-friendly election system, several newly established major businessmen of the 1850's and 60's, together with high-ranking government officials, managed to ensure their seats in the municipal assembly, often for decades, beginning from 1873. Even with the public's strong disapproval, virilism ( the institution of assembly membership for a limited number of major tax payers) was introduced in the capital. And though not in the expected proportions, this change resulted in the significant growth of the importance which the representatives of wholesale trade played at the time. With the new roles that all the newly elected personalities played, the glorious municipalism of the previous period lost some of its luster, but we can also find numerous representatives who gave proof of high adaptability in their offices. It is unfortunate though that a great number of traditional-minded small property owners were squeezed out from the field of colorful town politics of the 186()'s and 70's. The study also examines the directions of the social interest and activities of the town-councillors through the leading functions they took in the various associations. 52