ABSTRACT
Voluntary associations, as an expression of social change during a transition to a modern, industrial and constitutional society, and primarily as an urban phenomenon, developed qualitatively and quantitatively differently in the agrarian Kingdom of Hungary than in Western Europe. The delay in the development of various types of societies was not so significant, but the density of the networks of voluntary associations and the integration of larger groups of inhabitants was underdeveloped.1 The principal distinction from Western Europe consisted in the rural character of the land and society, the absence of cities and of a powerful, homogeneous middle class (Bürgertum), and, most of all, in the ethnic and confessional diversity in the towns and smaller settlements. Additionally, the different legal development, the strong role of the state in forming the associational scene, and the role of local government, the churches, and the singular position of the nobility, were essential factors of divergence.
