Választók, választási részvétel és választói magatartás Székelyföldön a dualizmus korában
Voters, voter turnout and voter behavior in Székely Land during the dual monarchy

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on the voters, the voter turnout and behavior in the era of the dual monarchy in Székely Land, one of the peripheral regions of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Székely Land was, for several reasons, a special territory on the electoral map of Hungary at the time. On the one hand, the characteristics of those having the right to vote differentiated it from the other regions as it was here that the percentage of persons voting by their “hereditary rights” was the highest in the country, and this remained decisive until the end of the era despite that fact that their number was decreasing gradually. But due to the poverty of the population and the higher census in Transylvania, there was no “new blood” as a result of which the number of voters started falling, so much so that by the beginning of the 20th century it had reached levels below the national average. If the number of voters were gradually decreasing voter turnout had increased by the beginning of the 20th century, though this was observed in the whole of Transylvania so we cannot attribute it simply to the fact that with the disappearance of those voting by hereditary rights votes became more and more valuable. Status-consciousness probably influenced voter turnout significantly: for the decreasing number of voters it must have been important to emphasize that they had a word in politics as a result of which active participation was more and more becoming the norm. We can also observe that close election results and the number of voters did influence turnout. Yet it is difficult to decide to what extent the growth of electoral corruption, intensifying political debates or the growth of polarization played a role. As far as party affiliation was concerned, in Székely Land the advances of proindependence opposition arrived late in comparison to the other territories, mostly inhabited by Hungarians, it is detectable from 1905 only, though the picture had been much more diversified previously than in other parts of Transylvania. As to the other phenomenon examined in the paper, the percentage of “stranger” representatives: following the Transylvanian towns, the constituencies in Székely Land had the second highest percentage of elected representatives not connected in any way to the electoral district or even to Transylvania. It was in the constituencies where pro-government representatives were elected that the percentage of stranger representatives with weak bonds to the area was the highest, and vice versa.

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