ABSTRACT
Differing fundamentally from the forms of the constitution of the estates, modern parliamentarism emerged in Hungary in 1848. The transition was not clearly perceivable, because it was the diet itself that was shaping the framework of this new constitutionalism in the course of a ‘lawful revolution’, and the political elite also relied on constitutional traditions. Modern parliaments are not simply important factors of the system of power, or serve as the ‘workshops’ for the laws that influence social life – they also greatly contribute to the broadening of the discursive space of politics. This chapter studies how the members of the new National Assembly interpreted the situation, the role of the institution, and the members themselves, under continuously changing political conditions, and what kind of political culture they represented. Speakers at the National Assembly wanted to break away from the disagreeable customs of the past and the slowness of decision-making in the various bodies of the institution. They had high esteem for popular representation and the process to broaden the body politic; theoretical debates were conducted to decide whether they or their voters better embodied the popular will, and if public opinion was represented more by them or by other popular movements.
