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This volume investigates the history of the parliamentary assemblies of Sweden, Poland and Hungary in the final period of the
ancien régime, offering an analysis of these three representative assemblies in a systematic comparative framework for the first time.
List of contents
Introduction: 'The sweet fruits of liberty' 1. The variety of political systems in eighteenth-century Europe: conditions, institutions, interests
Part I: Finances and representation 2. The political economy of taxation: bargaining at the meetings of the Swedish
riksdag, 1789-1812 3. Contributions, subsidies, and the estates of Hungary, 1790-1812 4. The representation of the Byzantine rite clergy at the Hungarian diet 5. Princeps inter pares: Karol Stanis¿aw Radziwi¿¿'s electoral machine and the Polish-Lithuanian parliament in the late eighteenth century
Part II: Mandates and voting 6. From delegation to representation: Polish-Lithuanian parliamentary reform and the British example 7. The struggle for the majority rule in the Polish-Lithuanian
sejm of the eighteenth century 8. Making parliamentary rule work: the introduction of the free mandate and majority voting in the Swedish
riksdag (1719-1723) 9. Forms of modern parliamentarism in eighteenth-century Hungary 10. 'I
nstructiones ablegatum': parliamentary decisions, members of parliament, and their constituencies in Hungary in the first half of the nineteenth century
About the author
István M. Szijártó is a professor of history at Eötvös University, Hungary. His research interests include microhistory and the history of Hungarian parliamentarism. His books in English are
What is microhistory? Theory and practice (2013, with Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon) and
Estates and constitution. The parliament in eighteenth-century Hungary (2020).
Wim Blockmans is a professor emeritus of history at Leiden University, Netherlands. His research aims to understand the variation of representative institutions throughout Europe. In 2024, he published
The Voice of the People? Political Participation before the Revolutions.
László Kontler is a professor of history at Central European University, Hungary/Austria. His research and publications focus on intellectual history, history of political thought, translation and reception, and the production and circulation of knowledge in early modern Europe. His books include
Translations, Histories, Enlightenments: William Robertson in Germany, 1760-1795 (2014) and
Maximilian Hell (1720-1792) and the Ends of Jesuit Science in Enlightenment Europe (2020, with Per Pippin Aspaas).
