Kísérlet az állam körül. Schvarcz Gyula reformterve a dualizmuskori alkotmányosság továbbfejlesztésére
Experiment around the state: the reform plans of Gyula Schvarcz for constitutional development in the Monarchy

Summary/Abstract: In the mid-1860s, Gyula Schvarcz (1838-1900) believed Western social development could be successfully adapted in Hungary, too. Seeing that the load-bearing capacity of society was lower, he expected the state, the political sphere dominated by state institutions to have the initiative. He meant to eliminate the legal gaps built into the political system of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy with his constitutional reform. He thought that the rights of the monarch should be clearly defined and the relationship between the two houses of the Parliament cleared up, although he questioned the necessity of a second chamber. He urged that the anomalies of the election system be removed, and the electorate broadened by making literacy the condition of the right to vote. He wanted an act to be passed on the modern responsibility of ministers, and would have had clerical offices filled with professionals. He rejected the institution of virilism, whereby the wealthiest held most of the elective offices, and wanted participation in local government to depend on the level of one's education. He deemed it necessary to precisely regulate administrative procedures, and administrative justice to be meted out by independent courts. He wanted justice to be administered by a judiciary dependent on laws only, which required the making of detailed laws and codes. His attention covering other areas of institutions under the rule of law, Schvarcz proposed the reform of the state audit office as well as the establishment of a state court (constitutional court) to direct conflicts between the branches of government into legal channels. He wanted to guarantee the rights of citizens in the constitution, and he did not wish to hinder the educational and economic efforts of the national minorities either. Schvarcz hoped that the state would have a modernizing role, one that would help bourgeois development, but he thought this interference was necessary only because of the weakness of society. He wanted to find guarantees that the state would, with its every move, promote the material, moral, and intellectual development of society so that in time the latter would be able to take over an increasing number of functions. Unlike a growing number of his contemporaries, Schvarcz insisted that the state should serve society and not the other way round.

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