How democratic were they, and what lead up to them?
27 comments
So, the first election in our history happened after the Árpád dinasty ended in 1301, after a long interregnum, Charles I of Anjou was elected as King.
The first party based parliamentary election was held in 1825, but only about 10% of the population could vote
The first modern representative election was held in 1848, as a result of the so-called April Laws aimed at modernizing the country, Lajos Batthyány became the first prime minister of the country (the exact results are lost), sadly, he couldn’t remain in the seat for long, after the War of Independence (1848-1849), the Habsburgs restored rule and regular elections only started in 1861.
The 1861 election is the first one that we know the result of, the liberal Address Party lead by Ferenc Deák won with 250 seats, the Resolution Party came in second with 100 seats and the Far-Left party came in third with 20 seats. There were an additional 60 seats for the Minorities’ Party.
They were democratic in the way that even peasants could vote, but the nobles’ votes were worth much more and only men could vote so it wasn’t really democratic.
The first election where women could vote was held in 1918.
1820. Women couldn’t vote though, so they weren’t democratic at all.
The first fully democratic election here was in 1975.
Had to google it, apparently it was in 1796, but it was only for men with a certain financial status.
[removed]
1814, they elected 112 representatives to make our constitution!
First proper election was the year after.
First king of Commonwealth was elected 1573. As you can guess it wasn’t very democratic as only nobleman were allowed to vote. They elected Henryk III Walezy (*Henri de Valois)*. The guy was smart and ambitious, but had no idea of how did Commonwealth work and he ran away at first opportunity.
In 500 bc the elections in Rome, only for free men and votes were more important the richest your cast was
We only got our independence in 1830. So the first or second year. For a while you had to be male and pay a specific extra tax.
After that we went to a plural system: every male one vote, you payed rhe tax two votes and if you had a university diploma you gor a third vote.
Later came sigleton vote for all males, and finally very late woman got the vote.
In 1907, which was 10 years before Finland declared independence from the Russian Empire. At the time of the election it was the Grand Duchy of Finland, and the elected parliament would obviously be below the Emperor. What lead up to it was probably the same things that lead up to the Duma in Russia.
In 1907 people over the age of 24, men and women, had the right to vote.
So, how democratic were they? Both men and women got to vote, that’s pretty democratic. But there was still an emperor, that’s pretty undemocratic.
Finland’s first elections as an independent country were in 1919. Declaration of independence was on the 6th of December 1917, then there was a civil war in the spring of 1918, which I imagine pushed the elections back a little bit.
In **1386** – polish nobility has assembled and agreed to give the crown to Władysław II Jagiełło [Lit. *Jogaila*] of Lithuania, creating a personal union between Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was done as after the death of hungarian king Ludwik the Hungarian, who negotiated granting a lot of privileges to our nobility in order to let his daugther Jadwiga take the crown, our magnants (so only highest of nobility) have decided that they are the ones who shall decide who will Jadwiga marry with them choosing Władysław over bethroded Habsburg. As part of the agreement, Władysław had to make vow that he will become christian, a personal union between Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania will be forged and that he will strive to reclaim land from baltic crusaders. Funnily enough before it, mother of Jadwiga didn’t want to send her daugther away especially since Lithuanians at the time were still treated as pagans, so our nobles threatened that if she doesn’t come for coronation then they will simply crown one of themselves.
This began and later lasted with creating election system within Jagellon dynasty where each new potential jagellonian ruler had to present his case (to nobles of both Poland and Lithuania) in order to be chosen. After Jagellonians died out, Commonwealth has moved to full Elective Monarchy in **1573** system where ALL nobles, be it poorest with no coin or mighest with whole voivodeships under them, were summoned to cast votes which were weighthed the same to choose anyone to become a new ruler.Such voting was called Free Election and also forced any new king to sign papers that were to guarantee freedom of faith and guaranteeing nobles a right to rise up in case a king would become a tyrant.
One of the biggest things implemented was a privilege of Liberum Veto – all nobles had to unanimously agree to parliament (sejm) meeting resolutions; if even a single one of them shouted liberum veto then all passed laws were immediately canceled. Yes, it was a bad idea.
Not so easy to say for Germany since historically we have been split into many mostly independent principalities and kingdoms.
I think the Napoleonic system introduced the first kinds of elections to many areas and after the congress of Vienna the German confederation agreed to establish something like state parliaments but the actual implementation varied between states.
In 1848 we also had elections for a national assembly that met in Frankfurt and drafted a liberal constitution but eventually the revolution sadly failed and the old monarchies had the upper hand.
Nevertheless, as a concession on 1848 most states had improved their establishment of a parliament and after the completed unification of 1871 we had the first elections of the German empire in that same year.
The first fully democratic elections by our modern standards that included women and all classes of society then happened after WWI and the abolition of the monarchy in 1919.
It depends on the definition of election.
The head of large households (i.e. farmers), meet up with the other (usually men) and decided on beheading by a show of hands.
Ting (Old Norse: þing) was in the Viking Age and the Middle Ages a people’s assembly, where the people exercised judicial and legislative power. At the ting, any farmer could present a complaint, and the verdict was handed down after an in-depth discussion. If someone refused to comply with the ting’s verdict, they could risk being outlawed. The sentences mainly consisted of fines, outlawry and beheading.
It’s complicated. I would say the Witan, C7th century, was an election but it wasn’t general. the first UK general election was in 1708 but that still wasn’t open to all. In 1929 everyone, including women could vote so that’s a date to add to the list too. Basically anywhere from between 600CE to 1929 but I wouldn’t be surprised if some form of elections happened before then.
1275-07-22 saw the election of Magnus “Ladulås” Birgersson to King of Sweden.
The electorate would’ve been the elite, so not your average medieval peasant and wench.
It’s a question calling for very different answer depending on what definition of *election* we choose.
If we’re really talking about any election, then Clovis, usually considered the first king of what would become the French State (it’s debatable), was elected in 481.
If we’re talking about any election in the whole Kingdom of France, inluding indirect elections, it’s probably the election of some Estates General during the Middle Ages (an assembly summoned by the king).
If we’re talking about the first free election that could be *somewhat* compared to what we have today, it’s the legislative elections of 1791.
First elections (sort-of) were held during winter 1829/1830. At the time the parliament didn’t meet regularly like now, but only in case of important events (like death of a ruler). Small villages would group together and send one deputee to the parliament in then-capital Kragujevac, larger villages and small towns would send one or two deputees, larger towns would send 3 to 6. The whole process took around two months.
The regular Parliament was officially formed in 1858, and you can say that’s when we had first “proper” elections. The parliament would meet every 3 years and elections were held regularly. Every male taxpayer over 21 years of age, either Serbian-born or naturalized citizen, had the right to vote. Voting at the time was public (you would go to the local council and declare who you vote for to the official).
Secret voting like we have today was introduced in 1888.
Technically in 1923, but there was only one party until 1946 election.
In 1946 we held our first democratic election.
1810 to choose the composition of the cortes of Cadiz (that promulgated the first spanish constitution in 1812) during the spanish war of independence after Napoleon had invaded Spain, only could vote men over 25 years of age who had an “open house”(engaged in some industry) and could not vote the ones convicted to “afflictive corporal punishment”, debtors of public funds, mentally insane, deaf-mutes, or foreigners.
The year 930 when our parliament (Alþingi) was formed and pretty Democratic in that all free men were eligible to vote.
Reading all these comments this seems darn interesting but also rather complicated and very much depends what you consider an election
…someone make a two hour video assay about it on yt that’d be splendid
Czechoslovakia: 1920
Slovakia: 1992 or 1993
Czechia: 1992 or 1993
Technically for Czechia, maybe a vote of the king Jiří from Poděbrady (1458), voted by Bohemian estates assembly.
Technically for Slovakia, if we treat Ancient Hungary (Uhorsko) as a predecessor, then Ferdinand I maybe?
Technically ~600 AD. The Witan were a collection of nobles who elected the king from among the possible heirs. However, as the country didnt technically exist then i suppose you would have to say 939 AD.
Denmark’s first national elections under a democratic constitution were held in 1849. I’d say that by today’s standards, they were only partially democratic.
Only financially independent men aged 30 years or older could vote, and only if they led their own household. In practice, this meant that only about 15 % of the adult population could vote.
The first ever were 1848. Women’s suffrage since 1918.
But in this country as it exists today first elections were held with the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) in 1949.
1796. After the French invasion. Only wealthy men could vote.
There were some cities that held elections in the Dutch republic in the seventeenth century, but no national vote.
1341 was the founding year of the commons in England, though we didn’t have anything close to democracy until the reform act 1832 and thus the 1832 general election that we had a fair election… for a few % of men lol
The earliest elections were held in the 1200s, when the Thing elected a new king.
The first elections that represented the whole population, the Four Estates – Nobility, Clergy, Bourgeoisie, and Peasantry – begun in the 1400s.
But the first modern and fair election, where all men and women held a single vote each, was in 1921.
27 comments
So, the first election in our history happened after the Árpád dinasty ended in 1301, after a long interregnum, Charles I of Anjou was elected as King.
The first party based parliamentary election was held in 1825, but only about 10% of the population could vote
The first modern representative election was held in 1848, as a result of the so-called April Laws aimed at modernizing the country, Lajos Batthyány became the first prime minister of the country (the exact results are lost), sadly, he couldn’t remain in the seat for long, after the War of Independence (1848-1849), the Habsburgs restored rule and regular elections only started in 1861.
The 1861 election is the first one that we know the result of, the liberal Address Party lead by Ferenc Deák won with 250 seats, the Resolution Party came in second with 100 seats and the Far-Left party came in third with 20 seats. There were an additional 60 seats for the Minorities’ Party.
They were democratic in the way that even peasants could vote, but the nobles’ votes were worth much more and only men could vote so it wasn’t really democratic.
The first election where women could vote was held in 1918.
1820. Women couldn’t vote though, so they weren’t democratic at all.
The first fully democratic election here was in 1975.
Had to google it, apparently it was in 1796, but it was only for men with a certain financial status.
[removed]
1814, they elected 112 representatives to make our constitution!
First proper election was the year after.
First king of Commonwealth was elected 1573. As you can guess it wasn’t very democratic as only nobleman were allowed to vote. They elected Henryk III Walezy (*Henri de Valois)*. The guy was smart and ambitious, but had no idea of how did Commonwealth work and he ran away at first opportunity.
In 500 bc the elections in Rome, only for free men and votes were more important the richest your cast was
We only got our independence in 1830. So the first or second year. For a while you had to be male and pay a specific extra tax.
After that we went to a plural system: every male one vote, you payed rhe tax two votes and if you had a university diploma you gor a third vote.
Later came sigleton vote for all males, and finally very late woman got the vote.
In 1907, which was 10 years before Finland declared independence from the Russian Empire. At the time of the election it was the Grand Duchy of Finland, and the elected parliament would obviously be below the Emperor. What lead up to it was probably the same things that lead up to the Duma in Russia.
In 1907 people over the age of 24, men and women, had the right to vote.
So, how democratic were they? Both men and women got to vote, that’s pretty democratic. But there was still an emperor, that’s pretty undemocratic.
Finland’s first elections as an independent country were in 1919. Declaration of independence was on the 6th of December 1917, then there was a civil war in the spring of 1918, which I imagine pushed the elections back a little bit.
In **1386** – polish nobility has assembled and agreed to give the crown to Władysław II Jagiełło [Lit. *Jogaila*] of Lithuania, creating a personal union between Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was done as after the death of hungarian king Ludwik the Hungarian, who negotiated granting a lot of privileges to our nobility in order to let his daugther Jadwiga take the crown, our magnants (so only highest of nobility) have decided that they are the ones who shall decide who will Jadwiga marry with them choosing Władysław over bethroded Habsburg. As part of the agreement, Władysław had to make vow that he will become christian, a personal union between Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania will be forged and that he will strive to reclaim land from baltic crusaders. Funnily enough before it, mother of Jadwiga didn’t want to send her daugther away especially since Lithuanians at the time were still treated as pagans, so our nobles threatened that if she doesn’t come for coronation then they will simply crown one of themselves.
This began and later lasted with creating election system within Jagellon dynasty where each new potential jagellonian ruler had to present his case (to nobles of both Poland and Lithuania) in order to be chosen. After Jagellonians died out, Commonwealth has moved to full Elective Monarchy in **1573** system where ALL nobles, be it poorest with no coin or mighest with whole voivodeships under them, were summoned to cast votes which were weighthed the same to choose anyone to become a new ruler.Such voting was called Free Election and also forced any new king to sign papers that were to guarantee freedom of faith and guaranteeing nobles a right to rise up in case a king would become a tyrant.
One of the biggest things implemented was a privilege of Liberum Veto – all nobles had to unanimously agree to parliament (sejm) meeting resolutions; if even a single one of them shouted liberum veto then all passed laws were immediately canceled. Yes, it was a bad idea.
Not so easy to say for Germany since historically we have been split into many mostly independent principalities and kingdoms.
I think the Napoleonic system introduced the first kinds of elections to many areas and after the congress of Vienna the German confederation agreed to establish something like state parliaments but the actual implementation varied between states.
In 1848 we also had elections for a national assembly that met in Frankfurt and drafted a liberal constitution but eventually the revolution sadly failed and the old monarchies had the upper hand.
Nevertheless, as a concession on 1848 most states had improved their establishment of a parliament and after the completed unification of 1871 we had the first elections of the German empire in that same year.
The first fully democratic elections by our modern standards that included women and all classes of society then happened after WWI and the abolition of the monarchy in 1919.
It depends on the definition of election.
The head of large households (i.e. farmers), meet up with the other (usually men) and decided on beheading by a show of hands.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_(assembly)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_(assembly))
From the Danish Wiki
Ting (Old Norse: þing) was in the Viking Age and the Middle Ages a people’s assembly, where the people exercised judicial and legislative power. At the ting, any farmer could present a complaint, and the verdict was handed down after an in-depth discussion. If someone refused to comply with the ting’s verdict, they could risk being outlawed. The sentences mainly consisted of fines, outlawry and beheading.
It’s complicated. I would say the Witan, C7th century, was an election but it wasn’t general. the first UK general election was in 1708 but that still wasn’t open to all. In 1929 everyone, including women could vote so that’s a date to add to the list too. Basically anywhere from between 600CE to 1929 but I wouldn’t be surprised if some form of elections happened before then.
1275-07-22 saw the election of Magnus “Ladulås” Birgersson to King of Sweden.
The electorate would’ve been the elite, so not your average medieval peasant and wench.
It’s a question calling for very different answer depending on what definition of *election* we choose.
If we’re really talking about any election, then Clovis, usually considered the first king of what would become the French State (it’s debatable), was elected in 481.
If we’re talking about any election in the whole Kingdom of France, inluding indirect elections, it’s probably the election of some Estates General during the Middle Ages (an assembly summoned by the king).
If we’re talking about the first free election that could be *somewhat* compared to what we have today, it’s the legislative elections of 1791.
First elections (sort-of) were held during winter 1829/1830. At the time the parliament didn’t meet regularly like now, but only in case of important events (like death of a ruler). Small villages would group together and send one deputee to the parliament in then-capital Kragujevac, larger villages and small towns would send one or two deputees, larger towns would send 3 to 6. The whole process took around two months.
The regular Parliament was officially formed in 1858, and you can say that’s when we had first “proper” elections. The parliament would meet every 3 years and elections were held regularly. Every male taxpayer over 21 years of age, either Serbian-born or naturalized citizen, had the right to vote. Voting at the time was public (you would go to the local council and declare who you vote for to the official).
Secret voting like we have today was introduced in 1888.
Technically in 1923, but there was only one party until 1946 election.
In 1946 we held our first democratic election.
1810 to choose the composition of the cortes of Cadiz (that promulgated the first spanish constitution in 1812) during the spanish war of independence after Napoleon had invaded Spain, only could vote men over 25 years of age who had an “open house”(engaged in some industry) and could not vote the ones convicted to “afflictive corporal punishment”, debtors of public funds, mentally insane, deaf-mutes, or foreigners.
The year 930 when our parliament (Alþingi) was formed and pretty Democratic in that all free men were eligible to vote.
Reading all these comments this seems darn interesting but also rather complicated and very much depends what you consider an election
…someone make a two hour video assay about it on yt that’d be splendid
Czechoslovakia: 1920
Slovakia: 1992 or 1993
Czechia: 1992 or 1993
Technically for Czechia, maybe a vote of the king Jiří from Poděbrady (1458), voted by Bohemian estates assembly.
Technically for Slovakia, if we treat Ancient Hungary (Uhorsko) as a predecessor, then Ferdinand I maybe?
Technically ~600 AD. The Witan were a collection of nobles who elected the king from among the possible heirs. However, as the country didnt technically exist then i suppose you would have to say 939 AD.
Denmark’s first national elections under a democratic constitution were held in 1849. I’d say that by today’s standards, they were only partially democratic.
Only financially independent men aged 30 years or older could vote, and only if they led their own household. In practice, this meant that only about 15 % of the adult population could vote.
The first ever were 1848. Women’s suffrage since 1918.
But in this country as it exists today first elections were held with the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) in 1949.
1796. After the French invasion. Only wealthy men could vote.
There were some cities that held elections in the Dutch republic in the seventeenth century, but no national vote.
1341 was the founding year of the commons in England, though we didn’t have anything close to democracy until the reform act 1832 and thus the 1832 general election that we had a fair election… for a few % of men lol
The earliest elections were held in the 1200s, when the Thing elected a new king.
The first elections that represented the whole population, the Four Estates – Nobility, Clergy, Bourgeoisie, and Peasantry – begun in the 1400s.
But the first modern and fair election, where all men and women held a single vote each, was in 1921.