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• Corruption as a concomitant phenomenon of the lack of democratic traditions or thoughts on the margin of failure of the democratic experiment in 1945

  15-26

  Attila Csönge

  Views:

  27

  For decades, there has been an open debate among historians about whether there was democracy in our country in 1945, and if so, what those few transition years were like, and what caused the failure of democracy. The study, – instead of the democratic state of the electoral system, the rule of law, respect for freedoms, self-government and civil society organization, – attempts to highlight the presence or absence of democratic traditions, which is generally less attended to, but undoubtedly was also part of the failure of the democratic experiment in 1945. Perhaps surprising, but the political and moral traditions of a society determine the chances for the development and survival of a democracy. In a corrupt, morally inferior society, it is more difficult to establish and operate democracy. Thus, democracy is guaranteed not only by the appearance of institutions and elections, but also by the thinking of the people living in it and by the norms that determine their behavior. The study illustrates the peculiarity of Hungary with examples mostly from Szolnok that in the 20th century the interchanging systems were struggling with a serious deficit of democracy, and therefore no democratic traditions could be formed in the society, and in 1945 they could not go back to such antecedents. Therefore, after 1945, Hungarian society appears as corrupt as it did before 1945. Corruption has affected not only politicians but also those at lower levels of society and has engulfed society as a whole. Thus, in order to consolidate democracy, it will not be enough in the future to replace politicians and reform institutions, but the society as a whole must change too, especially in its way of thinking and behavior.

• The Internal Sources of the Jews in the Source Material of MNL (Hungarian National Archives) 1760-1848

  149-160

  Erzsébet Mislovics

  Views:

  33

  The study is focused on the collection and complex analysis of the original, yet unpublished Jewish documents in the feudal source collections of MNL, Hungarian National Archives from the second half of the 18th century until 1848. The search for original internal sources began with a review of government records during the period under review. The collections in the Chancellery Archives, Acta Generalia (A 39) and the Council of Governor-General Archives, Departamentum Judaeorum (C 55) maintain the documents of the first and second instance bodies of the public administration in their relations with the intermediate administrative authorities. The source material in the Chancellery Archives presents mostly records of general affairs, whereas the Departamentum Judaeorum collection of the Council of Governor-General contains Jewish-related issues. In support of the presumptions, the collections are rich in Jewish-related internal, historical sources. The documents allow for a complex analysis of the time, number, geographical distribution, and content of the document collections. The sources contribute to a better understanding of the history of the Jews, their settlement, their economic, cultural, religious life, and their system of relations with Christian society. The document pages present their content to researchers in the wording of the members of contemporaneous Jewish society. Based on the research experience, it can be concluded that the vast majority of the sources come from Pest County, more closely from the town of Pest. Research on these inner sources in the collections of other counties is expedient to increase awareness of Jewish history in the modern Kingdom of Hungary. Therefore, the future goal of the research may be to review the materials of the county archives. It provides an opportunity to compare how the archival material in the national archives is complemented by archival collections from the counties. The development of a database could also be a step forward and could integrate the sources in national and county archives by indicating headings, names, locations, indexes, and short regestas. The available internal source material can refine and enrich the known history of 17-19th century Jews.