Utjecaj izbornog zakona na oblikovanje mađarskog parlamenta
The influence of the Electoral Law upon Forming of the Hungarian Parliament

Summary/Abstract: The author discusses the political effects of the Hungarian electoral law upon the forming of the Hungarian parliament. Although the makers of the new Electoral law argued that the democratic legislative body should widely and justly represent all interests, points of view, and opinions of the electoral body, the electoral law only partly stimulates proportionality. The disproportionate effects of the Hungarian electoral law (system) have been caused, according to the author, by several elements: namely, the prohibitive clause, the application of the electoral number procedure (the Hagenbach Bischoff method and the Hare method), the two-third rule for the distribution of the remaining mandates, and the size of the electoral districts. In the 1990 parliamentary elections the combined electoral system (that fuses electoral systems belonging to two different types the majority and the proportional system) achieved one of its basic political aims, i.e. it made great party fragmentation on the parliamentary level impossible although a comparatively large number of political parties participated in the electoral process. One of the first effects of the Hungarian electoral law upon the forming of the Hungarian parliament was a reduction of multiparliamentarism.

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