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Hungary Constitution of 1949
In June 1948, the Hungarian Workers' Party (on November
1,
1956, renamed the Hungarian Socialist Workers'
Party--HSWP)
sought to legitimate the fundamental changes that had
taken place
in the state, the economy, and the society and directed
the
government's Council of Ministers to begin work on a
constitution. The Council of Ministers formed a Drafting
Committee, which submitted a proposed Constitution on
August 5,
1949. The National Assembly ratified the Constitution on
August
20, 1949, thus making a new national holiday that
coincided with
the traditional holiday of the feast of Saint Stephen.
The regime modeled its Constitution on the 1936
"Stalin"
constitution of the Soviet Union. As of the late 1980s,
its basic
features remained in effect, although the regime added
important
amendments in 1950, 1953, 1954, 1972 and 1983. The 1949
Constitution contained a sociopolitical program dictated
by the
Soviet Union and listed the achievements of Hungary's
"people's
democracy"
(see Rakosi's Rule
, ch. 1). The government,
with its
ministerial system, collective presidency, and powerless
legislature, resembled the Soviet system of the Stalinist
period.
The Constitution also created the local council system and
new
kinds of judicial institutions, and it laid the groundwork
for
the country's system of public prosecutors
(see State Apparatus
, this ch.). Only Chapter IX, which described the national
flag and
coat of arms, had a specifically Hungarian character.
Data as of September 1989
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