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2019 Nyíregyháza City Council election: The Rawlsian interpretation of the local electoral reform

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November 5, 2022
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Nagy, L. (2022). 2019 Nyíregyháza City Council election: The Rawlsian interpretation of the local electoral reform. CROSS-SECTIONS - Social Science Journal, 8(4), 67-92. https://doi.org/10.18392/metsz/2019/4/6
Abstract

One of the main perspectives and urgent tasks of the newly formed government following the general elections of 2010 was to reform the local eletoral system. It is true, that the number of seats of the local representative bodies were significantly decreased, but it begs the question whether this change can reasonably explain the fact that the government considered this step as one of the first and most significant measures of its governance. To raise this question is justified by the fact that the reform (Act No. L of 2010 on the election of local government representatives and mayors) was introduced on June 14, 2010, with only sixteen days after the new Parliament approved and voted for the government’s program, and elected Viktor Orbán as prime minister of Hungary. After a brief presentation of the institutional framewortk of the local electoral system, the aim of this paper is twofold: first, I would examine whether the local electoral reform of 2010 could be considered as a „fair” step, based on John Ralws’ conception of „justice as fairness”, second, I would like to explain the actual process of transforming votes into local legislative seats in the case of the city of Nyíregyháza, in 2019.