Az arányosság újabb dimenziói
The paper compares the experiences of the Hungarian parliamentary elections of 1990 and 1994. It is important because actions different in their character are involved; the ones of 1990 were founding elections, whereas those of 1994 were more of free elections. The expression “founding elections” was used by O’Donnell and Schmitter to indicate the specific nature of the first elections laying down the foundations of the democratic transformation of some Latin American and south European countries and creating the framework of the new political system. The concept was used for the first time by Bogdanor in respect of the Central European transition. Whereas free elections rather mean a choice between alternatives within the new set-up.
According to the method of calculation regarded to be the most realistic one by the authors, in 1990 the representation of the five parliamentary parties may be considered proportionate if the over-representation of the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) is disregarded.
Thus, the victor got into a strongly over-represented position to the detriment of parties which could not get into Parliament. In 1994 the indices of the parties of the middle, such as the SZDSZ and the MDF,
remained below those of the smaller ones. The latter ones are just as proportionately represented as they were in 1990. Consequently, it appears that the mechanisms of compensation inside the system were able to secure the near-proportionate representation of the parties at the second to the sixth places in 1990, but they were unable to do so in 1994.
The conclusion can be risked that a decisive role was played in the growth of disproportionateness by changes in the structure of supporters of the parties, including the growth of the proportion of votes for the victorious party of 1994 (MSZP) and the given territorial distribution of its supporters.