National Parties in Local Government: Agencies and Congregations in Hungary

In 1989/91, the creators of the new Hungarian political system faced a dilemma about the local political level: should they either prevent the appearance of the national parties in the local communities and strengthen its locality or let national parties in, and surrender local politics to them? With regards to electoral rules, they divided the municipalities based on the number of their inhabitants. In municipalities with a population not more than 10,000, voters elect their representatives under plurality rules (block vote). Larger communities apply plurality rules with compensatory lists which encourage political actors to compete under party labels. The aim of this paper is to investigate whether national political parties are able to “conquer” smaller communities; if yes, how is the relationship between the national and local politics formed. Do representatives of the parties primarily serve as agents of the party centre, or are they committed to furthering local interests first, using their party attachments in the advantage of reaching their particularistic goals. This study is part of a larger PhD research project, in which – as part of a case study research design – I interview mayors and representatives in local governments below the population of 10,000 inhabitants, to investigate whether and how their national political affiliations influence their work in the local communities. My findings suggest that politics at the local level is shaped by a series of complex interactions of several factors: the different party-affiliations of the mayor and the local council, the political tension between the national and local government and the ideological differences between representatives, which often roots in personal hostilities within the local community.