“FEEDING AND WATERING” DURING THE ELECTIONS IN DÉS AND CSONGRÁD IN 1901: „Infected” Votes and Political Community Building

Abstract

The essay examines the complex phenomenon “feeding and watering” through the well-known cases of Dés and Csongrád following the parliamentary elections in 1901. In both constituencies, the losing parties contested the results at the Hungarian Royal Curia, which annulled the elections, citing – among other irreg- ularities – the large-scale provision of food and drink to voters. In the case of Csongrád, the House of Representative suspended even the right to elect a repre- sentative for this elective parliamentary term. As neither contemporary legislation nor judicial practice provided a precise legal definition of the “feeding and watering”, this study does not seek to reassess the historical court decisions. Instead, it explores the boundary between this unlawful custom and legally tolerated hospitality by analysing the political and social conditions of the 1901 elections, the local electoral environments, and the motivations of key actors involved in the campaigns. The analysis demonstrates that the „feeding and watering” often played a cen- tral role in the formation and maintenance of local electoral camps and thus the phenomenon goes beyond the simple bribery. Features of the contemporary elec- toral system – open voting, the spatial separation of voter groups, geographical distances within constituencies, local political and social relations, and forms of personal responsibility – shaped processes of temporary political community building in much the same way as practices that were later judged to be unlawful.