The Diet of Hungary, originally known as Parlamentum Publicum / Parlamentum Generale, has been a pivotal political assembly in Hungary since the 12th century. Emerging as the supreme legislative institution in the Kingdom of Hungary from the 1290s, it continued to hold this position in Royal Hungary and the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary throughout the early modern period until the end of World War II.
Early Origins and Evolution
Some researchers have traced the roots of the Hungarian institution of national assemblies as far back as the 11th century. An institutionalized Hungarian parliament emerged during the 14th and 15th centuries. Beginning under King Charles I and continuing under subsequent kings through into the reign of King Matthias I, the Diet was primarily convened by the king. However, under the rule of autocratic kings like Louis the Great and the early absolutist Matthias Corvinus, parliaments were often summoned merely to formalize royal decisions, which members were obliged to approve to meet constitutional requirements, thus it had no significant power of its own.
The Medieval Diet
Before the development of the society of estate, the Diet consisted of the lords and the leaders of the church, but then the voting base was extended to the common nobility and the elected representatives of Royal free cities. From the 1400s onwards, two chambers began to be steadily separated, the lower plate of the estates and the arch-noblety on the upper. With the parliamentary system, the upper chamber was given over to the high priests and arch-nobles, while the lower chamber was filled by elected representatives. From the 13th century onwards, law-making was a joint right of the king and the diet. This remained a fundamental principle of the constitution of the later society of estate. The Latin term Natio Hungarica ("Hungarian nation") was used to designate the elite which had participation in the medieval and early modern era political life of Hungary (at local level as members of the assemblies of the counties, or nation-wide level as members of the Parliaments).
16th-18th Century
In 1608 the Diet divided into two houses: House of Magnates and House of Representatives. Until 1848, the Diets were called Hungarian Diet of the Estates (Hungarian: Rendi országgyűlés) which was an Estates General. The Diet in Hungary between 1708 and 1792, played a critical role in embodying the basic rights of the estates, which were deeply rooted in custom rather than formal legislation. In 1764, the Diet discussed 118 grievances, showcasing a persistent tension between the estates' demands and royal proposals. Negotiations at the Diet often linked grievances with taxation demands, evidenced by Maria Theresa's struggles to increase contributions amid significant county opposition.
The Reform Era and the Revolution of 1848
The Hungarian Reform Era was a period of Hungarian history in the 19th century characterized by a distancing from Habsburg rule. In line with other upheavals in 1848, the ideas of nationalism and liberalism had spread to Hungary.
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In István Széchenyi's book, Credit, the ideas of the abolition of antiquity and the elimination of "robotic systems" were introduced, those which would later be principles of the Diet. After many years of absence, a Diet was convened in Pozsony in 1825. The king Francis I, a conservative absolutist monarch, promised to return to the feudal constitution on the condition that the nobility increase the tax and rookie headcount. Hungary experienced a cholera outbreak in 1831, along with a serf uprising in Upper Hungary. Voluntary redemption was introduced, though the extreme poverty of Hungarian serfs meant there was little impact. Hungarian became the official language of Hungary.
During the Revolution of 1848, the March Laws, measures enacted by the Hungarian Diet at Pozsony (modern Bratislava) created a modern national Magyar state. After revolutions had broken out in Paris (Feb. 24, 1848) and in Vienna (March 13), liberal Hungarians, who dominated the lower house of the Diet, sought to avoid radical social revolution by emphasizing reform and national liberation. On March 15 the liberals’ leader Lajos Kossuth presented their program to the Diet; it was intended to preserve the gentry’s power and to create an independent Magyar state united with the Austrian Empire only in the person of the emperor-king. This program, known subsequently as the March Laws, was adopted by both the upper and the lower houses.
The April Laws were adopted in March 1848, sanctioned by the King on 11 April 1848. These introduced a constitutional monarchy, an accountable government, and expanded suffrage. The Era of Reforms in 1848 brought an end to the Diet of the Estates, introducing the National Assembly. One of the key words of the Revolution of '48 was the taking away the privileges of the nobles and oligarchs, so currently there is an unicameral system, to guarantee the rule of the people.
The Laws provided for a viceroy in Budapest to exercise the prerogatives of the emperor without answering to Vienna. They also stated that Hungary was to control its own national guard, budget, and foreign policy and that it was to have its own ministry responsible to the Hungarian parliament at Budapest; the parliament was to replace the feudal Diet at Pozsony, and suffrage was to be based on a property qualification. All the “lands of the crown of St. Stephen” were to be part of the Magyar state (including Transylvania and Croatia), but representatives to the parliament were required to speak the Hungarian language. The nobility’s exemption from taxation was abolished, and feudalism was ended by abolishing the robot (the labour owed by the peasants to their landlords); the state was to compensate the landowners. On April 11, 1848, the March Laws were constitutionally confirmed by Emperor Ferdinand I (reigned 1835-48), and the Hungarian Revolution was legalized.
After the Revolution
Although Austria denied the validity of the laws after the revolution was defeated (1849), Hungary continued to insist on their legality. In 1796, the diet was convened again to be informed that "attacked by the impious and iniquitous French nation, the king felt the necessity of consulting his faithful states of Hungary, remembering that, under Maria Theresa, Hungary had saved the monarchy." The diet voted to supply a contingent of 50,000 men, and undertook to provision the Austrian army, amounting to 340,000 soldiers. The diet of 1807 was more remarkable. In the course of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 a diet was called at Pest that was dismissed by decree of Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria in October; the next year a Hungarian assembly met at the Protestant Great Church of Debrecen, which declared the new Emperor Franz Joseph deposed and elected Lajos Kossuth regent-president.
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The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867
The Habsburgs again approached the Hungarian estates after the disastrous defeat at the 1859 Battle of Solferino and the loss of Lombardy. In 1860 Emperor Franz Joseph issued the October Diploma, which provided a national Reichsrat assembly formed by delegates deputed by the Landtage diets of the Austrian crown lands, followed by the February Patent of 1861, promising the implementation of a bicameral legislature. The Hungarian magnates however rejected being governed from Vienna and insisted on a parliamentary assembly with comprehensive autonomy in Hungarian affairs. Under the 1867 Ausgleich (Compromise), Hungary received full internal autonomy.
The Parliament of the Austro-Hungarian Era
The legislative power was vested in this parliament, consisting of two houses: an upper house titled the Főrendiház (House of Magnates), and a lower house titled the Képviselőház (House of Representatives). The House of Magnates (Főrendiház) was, like the current British House of Lords, composed of hereditaries, ecclesiastics, and, unlike the House of Lords, deputized representatives from autonomous regions (similar to Resident Commissioners of United States territories). The House had no fixed membership size, as anyone who met the qualifications could sit in it.
The House of Representatives (Képviselőház) consisted of members elected, under the Electoral Law of 1874, by a complicated franchise based upon property, taxation, profession or official position, and ancestral privileges. The House consisted of 453 members, of which 413 were deputies elected in Hungary and 40 delegates of Croatia-Slavonia sent by the parliament of that Kingdom. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition considered the franchise "probably the most illiberal in Europe".
The parliament was summoned annually by the king in Budapest. While the official language was Hungarian, the delegates of Croatia-Slavonia were allowed to use the Croatian language in the proceedings. The Hungarian parliament had the power to legislate on all matters concerning Hungary, but for Croatia-Slavonia only on matters which it shared with Hungary.
Executive power was vested in a cabinet responsible to it, consisting of ten ministers, including: the president of the council, the minister for Croatia-Slavonia, a minister ad latum, and the ministers of the interior, of national defence, of education and public worship, of finance, of agriculture, of industry and commerce, and of justice. The King had the power to veto all legislation passed by the Diet and also to dissolve it and call new elections. Additionally, before any bill could be presented to the Diet, the Emperor-King had to give his Royal Assent.
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According to Randalph Braham, the increasingly illiberal nature of the Diet, leading into World War II, over the period from 1867 and 1944, continues to be a sticking point in regional cultural and political conflicts to this day. The population fluctuated from 6.7% having the franchise in 1848, to 5% having the franchise in 1874, reaching a peak of 8% at the beginning of World War I, with significant police and other pressure on the vote to remain highly partisan.
The Austro-Hungarian compromise and its supporting liberal parliamentary parties remained bitterly unpopular among the ethnic Hungarian voters, and the continuous successes of these pro-compromise liberal parties in the Hungarian parliamentary elections caused long lasting frustration among Hungarian voters. The ethnic minorities had the key role in the political maintenance of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in Hungary, because they were able to vote the pro-compromise liberal parties into the position of the majority/ruling parties of the Hungarian parliament. The pro-compromise liberal parties were the most popular among ethnic minority voters, however i.e. the Slovak, Serb and Romanian minority parties remained unpopular among their own ethnic minority voters.