Századok – 2000

TANULMÁNYOK - Takács Tibor: A főispáni kar társadalmi összetételének alakulása a két világháború közötti Magyarországon 1029

A FŐISPÁNI KAR A HORTHY-KORSZAKBAN 1101 temporarily fell. Most of those appointed were in their forties and fifties, but a new generation also appeared on the stage: from the beginning of the 1930s those who had begun their political career in the calm period of the dualistic monarchy were gradually replaced by members of the generation which entered the stormy waters of politics shortly before or during World War I and were consequently more receptive to right-wing radicalism. Generally, but not without exception, the high sheriff belonged to the same religion as the majority of the municipality. On a national scale Protestant high sheriffs were somewhat overrepresented (especially with regard to Catholics). By the end of the period the importance of local networks had somewhat grown in importance. Yet in general all these indicators reflected but minor modifications, with the exception of the appearance of new generations. More characteristic developments can only be discovered through the analysis of "typical" careers. Whereas in the 1920s the importance of officials dicreased in favour of land-owners, in the 1930s the trend turned again. In the middle of the 1930s the presence of ministry officials was especially marked. In 1939 the picture changed again thanks to the growing weight of land-owners. Also characteristic was in the late 1920s the great proportion of lawyers and "politicians", both groups strengthening the political-public background of the body of high sheriffs. In general of course the official character of the position of high sheriff was dominant, supported as it was by legal regulation and the social and personal background of the group in general. Upon the basis of profession, wealth and political background therefore most of the high sheriffs can be shown to have come from a well-defined group of society, namely the middle class(es). The social basis of the body of high sheriffs was constituted by two, contiguous segments of the traditional middle class, the public servants and the land-owners. In other words, most of the high sheriffs came from the local administrative and land-owning elite. Formerly the high sheriffs rarely had access to positions of power on a national level, maintaining personal contacts with only a part of the political elite (the legislation) and with a very narrow fraction of the traditional aristocracy. For most of them, however great their local influence was, social position remained identical with their office of high sheriff itself, and only some of them were able to ascend into the national political elite. Multipositionalism therefore remained limited to the local level, segregation from the other groups of the elite being dominant at the national level. This phenomenon was linked to the nature of the office of high sheriff itself, which favoured the appointment of persons of local influence, but also to the fact that the official burdens of the high sheriffs coupled with the principle of official incompatibility made a career in other spheres of the administration impossible. On the basis of all this the role of the office of high sheriff in the forming of the elite was to lift the influential members of the local elites into the national political elite, at least for the time of their office-holding.