From the diet of estates to the parliament. The case of Transylvania (1846–69)

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the transition from the diet of estates to the modern parliament in Transylvania – a province of the Habsburg monarchy until 1867 and part of dualist Hungary between 1867 and 1918. It discusses the evolution of the electoral legislation and its relation to the general political context of the Habsburg monarchy and that of the province, and analyses the structural changes of the body of representatives in the succession of provincial and state assemblies, diets and parliaments that took place from the late 1840s to the late 1860s. Its main aims are to highlight the dependency relationship between the provincial representative institution and the major political changes atop the monarchy, and the effects of this situation on the transition process towards a wider and more representative franchise based on modern liberal principles. This article also discusses some of the most important changes undergone by the body of provincial representatives during this period. This includes their relationship to the political dependency previously mentioned, and how the traditional elites managed to maintain and sometimes even strengthen their political standing.