Estates and Constitution

Download or read book Estates and Constitution written by István M. Szijártó and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2020-09-20 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Across eighteenth-century Europe, political power resided overwhelmingly with absolute monarchs, with notable exceptions including the much-studied British Parliament as well as the frequently overlooked Hungarian Diet, which placed serious constraints on royal power and broadened opportunities for political participation. Estates and Constitution provides a rich account of Hungarian politics during this period, restoring the Diet to its rightful place as one of the era’s major innovations in government. István M. Szijártó traces the religious, economic, and partisan forces that shaped the Diet, putting its historical significance in international perspective.