The Influence of the Estate System and Power Relations in the Late Feudal Parliament Seating Plan
Tamás Dobszay
Eötvös Loránd University
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Hungarian Historical Review Volume 10 Issue 1 (2021): 129-154 DOI 10.38145/2021.1.129
“We shape our buildings and then they shape us,” Winston Churchill said when the question of rebuilding Westminster and modifying the interior of the House of Commons came up and he expressed his support for preserving the former system. Thus, according to the prime minister, a seating plan both expresses and determines the character and operation of parliamentarism. In light of this interconnection, in this essay I examine the formal characteristics of the late feudal Diet in Hungary between 1790 and 1848, as well as the power relations of the estates and strivings as they found expression within this system.
Keywords: 19th century, Hungarian Diet, late feudal parliamentarism, Estate system, use of space, seating arrangement of chambers