The “Place” of the Poor Law in the Municipalities in Times of Dualism

Abstract

The study provides an overview of the poor law system in Hungary during the period of dualism (1867–1918). The study examines the topic primarily in a symbolic approach: it focuses on the architectural design of the administrative buildings of the so-called towns with municipal rights and aims to show the “place”, situation and perception of the poor law of the period.

The architectural examples presented in the study and some of the press reports cited, as well as the findings from the specialised literature, show that poor law was not the most important local task. As a result of legal regulations, it was subordinated to private charity, and instead of state responsibility, communal responsibility, which was the responsibility of the so-called “communities of residence”, became dominant. At the same time, however, it was also not a priority for the local administration, as the placement of the administration shows: the assignment to a captain’s office, which reinforced the police approach, the assignment of office duties to one or two poor law officers, the cramped conditions in the city halls, the placement in the back and side wings and the difficult accessibility.