CENTRE FOR REGIONAL STUDIES 
OF HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 
Discussion Papers 1987. No. 3. 
Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary
DISCUSSION - PAPERS 
No . 3 
Administrative Division and 
Administrative Geography in 
Hungary 
by 
HAJDU, Zo I Lin 
Series editor: HRUBI, Lesz16 
Pecs 
1987 

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Discussion Papers 1987. No. 3. 
Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary
ISSN 0238 - 2008 

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Discussion Papers 1987. No. 3. 
Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary
Contents  
I. Introduction 
1 
II. Main tendencies in the development of admin-
istrative geography 
9 
III. Interrelations of the development of admin-
istrative geoaraphy and administrative divi-
sion in Hungary 
18 
A) Administrative geography in the period 
preceding World War I 
20 
B) The connection between geoaraphy and 
public administration in Hungary between 
the two world wars 
24 
a) The endeavours of Teleki's school in 
terr'torial division 
27 
b) Pinz's reform projects 
32 
C) Administrative geography after 1945 
37 
IV. The geographical issues of the administrative 
reform of 1984 
45 
V. Summary 
48 
Bibliography 
50 
Appendix 
59 

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Discussion Papers 1987. No. 3. 
Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary 5-76. p.
I. INTRODUCTION 
The settling and territorial organization of citizens 
is a characteristic feature common to all states. The ma-
jority of states - apart from city-states and mini-states 
- have na internal political (administrative) division. 
Administrative division is mainly a matter of state power 
and policy-making but obviously from:the aspect of effi-
cient functioning the predominance of exercising power 
rather presupposes than excludes the creation of a ra-
tional administrative system of centres and territories. 
Administrative division also involves historically 
established national particularities. The structure of 
territorial division, the extent of centralization and 
decentralization cannot be separated from historical de-
termination by ideas of state and nation, from the pre-
vailing class and power relations and the method of ex-
ercising power. 
The administrative division, called into being 
by 
long-term historical development of the political, e-
conomic and social relations, has  -relative independence 
and stability, affecting the emergence of new forms. 
Besides the primacy and determining character of 
power relations and the conserving effect of 
histori- 
cally established structures, the development of 
ad- 
ministrative division is considerably influenced 
by 
the development of the productive forces and the es- 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 6 - 
tablished practice of territorial division, the natural, 
economic, transport and settlement network patterns of 
the territory of state, the number of inhabitants, their 
territorial distribution, the composition of nationalities 
and the formation of the communication possibilities etc. 
In spite of this, administrative division depends di-
rectly neither upon the territorial division of labour, 
nor the economic structure, nor intersettlement rela-
tionships. Public administration has its own particular 
internal system of requirements; thus the efficient func-
tioning of administretion may be required only if these 
requirements are taken into consideration in 
defining 
the territorial division. 
The theoretical issues of administrative division are 
dealt with by political law, while the functioning of the 
territorial system is the main concern of public admin-
istration law. It is increasingly widely expressed that 
no single science is capable of solving the theoretical, 
methodological and practical tasks facing administrative 
territorical organization. 
The examination of the formation, contents, effects  
and boundaries of the administrative system of centres  
and territories is an important geographical issue, as  
the organization of the population separated by terri-
tories takes place within the framework of the prevail-
ing administrative division. Administration is an ac- 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 7 - 
tivity of the widest range, which encompasses nearly all 
the areas of the life of the population, powerfully in-
fluencing the formation of the functional and hiearchical 
system of the relationships of settlements through its 
own function, and control of the regular movement of the 
population in several aspects. 
The territorial and settlement pattern of the admin-
istrative divison entirely covers the whole of the coun-
try, each point of the country  being a regulated and vis-
ibly organized part of the administrative 
territorial 
system.  
The geographical issues of administrative organiza-
tion are farreaching. A whole range of issues posed in 
connection with natural geography, economic geography, 
settlement geography, Population geography, historical 
geography etc. Administrative geography as a discipline 
was  developed within political geography in order to  
explore, analyse,_answer the issue of this complex system 
of interconnections in an aim-oriented way. 
This study surveys the relationships between the for-
mation and the development of the Hungarian administra-
tive geography and the historical changes in administra-
tive division. We seek an-answer to the question of the 
nature of the relationship between the development of 
geographical theory, the geographical ideas on admin- 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 8 - 
istrative organization (administrative space theory) and 
the reform proposals of geographical character. We survey 
the role and effects of the foreign schools of thought in 
the development of the approach and methodology in Hun-
garian administrative geography. 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
-9 
II. MAIN TENDENCIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
ADMINISTRATIVE GEOGRAPHY 
The theory of geoaraphy has always been closely con-
nected with broader philosophical, socio-theoretical and 
political thinking, and social practice. The basic points 
of departure of geography, the interpretation and eval-
uation of the relationships between the economy and po-
litical structures, are considerably determined by the 
objectives of society. 
The relationships between geography, state and admin-
istrative division have changed essentially in the course 
of historical development. For centuries geography used 
to meet the demands of extending knowledge on and de-
scribing the state and administrative units became the 
fundamental, if not an exclusive field of geographical 
research and elaboration. 
In the second half of the 19th century geography trans-
formed from a mass of facts on states into 
a modern 
science. The transformation was accompanied by the large-
scale extension of analytical research, the differenti-
ation and intense specialization of disciplines. Gaining 
impetus, political geography mainly analysed-the geog- 
raphical issues of political systems, though 
at 
the 
same time it gave way to the study of politico-territo- 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
-10 - 
rial division within the state. In the process of for-
mation, political geography formulated the "regulari-
ties" of state development in the spirit of geograph-
ical mechanistic determinism. 
The developing administrative geography considered  
its task to do research into the theoretical, histor-
ical issues and practical influence of administrative  
territorial organization and division, and to elaborate  
the geographical foundations of administrative division.  
After the formation of administrative oeography sev-
eral tendencies of development unfolded, national schools 
of thought came into being; in fact, the views of some 
significant representatives of this scientific field 
also changed considerably. 
Investigating the development of administrative 
ge - 
ography chronologically we can 
state that during and 
after World War I the research of those 
geographical 
questions of administrative division relying upon the 
pre-war initiatives became intensified in most European 
countries. The war efforts posed questions of the man-
agement and administration of the economy and population 
in a new way. The post-war economic, social and polit-
ical changes, the formation of states and the change 
of state boundaries drew the attention of geography to 
the questions of state, state structure and the polit-
ical division of society. 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
In the period between the two World Wars research in 
the field of administrative aeography became more in-
tense. Development asserted itself in several directions, 
"discipline-grounding" analyses of theoretical character 
came of the forefront as well as attempts to find the 
taxonomical place of administrative geography among sci-
ences. The most significant of all tendencies was the 
interconnection of the research of administrative geog-
raphy, the territorial reform proposals of different 
character and the research of territorial improvement 
and regional planning in the most developed countries. 
It became increasingly clear to geographers that public 
administration and the administrative organization of 
territories represent an important aspect of the life 
of society. 
After World War II the intensification of the earlier 
tendencies may be encountered. On the one hand,, thor-
ough and detailed territorial research was on the in-
crease in administrative geography, analyses 
aimed at 
finding the taxonomical place of administrative geog- 
raphy among sciences gained gro-Und on the other, 
and 
finally research in administrative geography becaremore 
closely connected with the efforts of territorial devel-
opment. In the 1950s administrative geography made the 
first definite move toward sociology and 
political sci- 
ence. After the 1960s significant meth'odological devel- 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 12 - 
opment took place, administrative geography became math-
ematicized and new ways of approach appeared. In the 1970s 
the field of research shifted to the theory of space, 
various space-modelling experiments 
being initiated. 
By the 1980s it became widely accepted that "Admin-
istrative geography is that branch of political geogra-
phy which concentrates on the geographic study of in- 
ternal subdivisions of states (R. Sevrin, 1985. p. 
72). 
Correspondingly, administrative geographical 
research 
covers theoretical,' historical and practical 
issues of 
administrative division, it explores the effects of the 
functioning of public administration. 
Examining the development of administrative geography 
from the point of view of geographical theory 
 it can be 
discovered that all the three main ideologies of geogra-
phy studying the regularities of natural, economic and so-
cial space-narely landscape geography, economic regionaliz-
ation theory and the theory of central places - arrived 
at (although with significantly different emphasis) the 
research of the theoretical and practical issues of ad-
ministrative division, formulating their concepts of ad-
ministrative division and elaborating proposals of ter-
ritorial division. 
It is conspicuous that the proposals 
of geographi- 
cally based division range over a wide scale in 
every 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 13 - 
country; as the concrete territorial systems of the pro-
posals resting on similar theoretical principles greatly 
differ, it is quite understandable that the territorial 
reform proposals of diverse theoretical inspiration are 
entirely diverse (R. E. Dickinson, 1964). 
With regard to administrative territorial organization 
the statements of the 3 large schools of geographical 
theory can be outlined only very briefly as follows: 
In the modern landscape theory of the second half of 
the 19th century, landscape is at first a category of 
natural geography, then its scope gradually widens. Land-
scape becomes a comprehensive category of classification, 
in which the interaction of the natural, economic, social, 
demographic, settlement network stc, processes can be 
interpreted. According to quite a number of scholars of 
the landscape geography of the early 19th century, all 
producing, building, organizing etc. activities of man 
have a landscape character, thus landscape can serve as 
the objective scientific spatial basis of states, admin-
istrative division and social organization. Gradually 
the theory of landscape theory and landscape administra-
tion appears. The followers of landscape administration 
wished to construct the administrative division of state 
upon the system of landscapes. Although the theory of 
landscape administration is a mainstream tendency in the 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 14 - 
early 20th century, later on it can be met with only spo-
radically. (In Hungary, as will be pointed out below, 
this tendecy was also very strong between the two world 
wars due to the particular historical situation). 
The theory of economic recionalization considers its 
main task to be the exploration of the spatial system 
of the territorial labour division and it approaches the 
theoretical questions of settlement network and adminis-
trative division from this very aspect. It studies the 
role of settlements from the side of economic performance. 
Concrete research of economic regions.was mainly fo-
cussed upon in the exploration of the territorial system 
and the structure and relationships of the economy, and 
touched upon the questions of settlement network as well. 
The territorial categories revealed or created in the 
course of research (micro-, mezo-, macro-region) mainly 
reflect the structure and spatial relations of the eco-
nomy and one cannot draw a clear-cut analogy between these 
territorial categories and either the administrative di-
vision or the established system of central places and 
gravity zones of the settlement network. 
The concepts of administrative division based on the 
theory of economic regionalization emerged in France at 
the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries; then, becoming 
the central category of the Soviet economic geography, 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 15 - 
it started to determine the administrative division con-
cept of Marxist economic geography. 
According to the significant representatives of eco-
nomic regionalization the territorial division of soci-
ety is basically determined by the economic spatial struc-
ture; therefore they propose that administrative division 
should be based upon the system of economic reaions. 
Recently, however, the claim to formulate the determining 
character of economic regions in a subtler way has gain-
ed ground. 
The theory of central places chiefly approaches 
the 
interconnections of administrative division from th'e 
side of the structural and functional relationships of 
settlement network. According to quite a few advocates 
of the theory of central places the spatial relations of 
supply provide the foundations of the regular movement 
of the population and the framework of intersettlemen - t 
relations, whereby the gravity zones formed round the  
settlements of central character and of different levels 
may become the optimal  spatial grounds of administrative  
division.  
A regional survey of the emergence, formation and de-
velopment of administrative geography will confirm the 
conclusion that under the influence of the 
historical 
particularities of the individual countries and that of 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 16 - 
the "geographical national schools", geography approach-
ed the questions of administrative division in diverse 
ways and from the aspect of diverse theoretical princi-
ples; nevertheless and in many places it had a major role 
in investigating the changes and conflicts of the histor-
ically established administrative division, in elaborat-
ing the geographical foundations of a new administrative 
division. 
Administrative geography has become a major trend of 
research in the countries where internal political divi-
sion, the system of territorial administration and dis-
tribution are of complex_ character, the relations of na-
tionalities are strongly divided territorially (Belgium, 
Canada); where attempts have been made time and again to 
reform the historical division (France); and where sub-
stantial administrative reform has been carried through 
(Great Britain). Within geography the study of tl?e geo-
gra_phical questions of the federal construction of gov-
ernment (the USA, Australia, the Federal Republic of 
Germany) has also led to a more vigorous research 
in 
administrative geography. 
Among the socialist countries it is mainly the Soviet 
Union where the study of the geographical, methodologi-
cal and practical issues of administrative organization 
has been carried on in close connection with economic 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 17 - 
regionalization; but to some extent and in some way the 
question of administrative territorial organization has 
appeared in the geography of other countries as well. 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 18 - 
III. INTERRELATIONS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
ADMINISTRATIVE GEOGRAPHY AND 
ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISION IN HUNGARY 
The relationship of geography and administration has 
a long historical past. Until the end of the 19th century 
Hungarian geography considered its main tast to give an 
encyclopaedic description of the state and counties. In 
this way administrative units became the basic territo-
rial categories of geography, the most important frame-
work of investigation, data publication and description. 
A  chronological survey of the relationship between  
Hungarian geography  and  administrative territorial or-
ganization suggests that until the end of the 19th 
 century 
geography conformed to  the prevailing administrative di-
vision; it did not take a critical approach but took the 
administrative framework for granted, merely describing 
the counties.  The exact 
transport geographical  analysis 
of the existing administrative division and its  criticism 
 based on insochronous maps started in the 1900s. During 
and after World War I the elaboration of geographically 
based administrative reform plans was initiated. After  
1945 geography as a science wanted to have and did have 
its share  in the theoretical and in part practical pregL 
aration  of  the administrative reforms based on complex  
foundations.  

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 19 - 
Studying the 
relationships from the point of view  of 
geographical theory  it can be stated that the landscape  
theory approach remained predominant until 1945, but the 
need for an administrative territorial reform based on 
the theory of central places also appeared mainly through 
the inclusion of the coordination of transport gravity 
zones and administrative division. In the 1950s most ge-
ographers envisaaed  and  planned the reform of administra-
tive  division on the basis of economic regionalization. 
Since the 1960s the claim to a system of administrative 
division relying upon the-research of gravity zones has 
been 
 most frequently expressed but conceptions of admin-
istrative division integrated with the economic region-
alization approach may also be encountered. 
In the course of modern Hungarian history significant 
changes occurred in the 1870s, in 1923, 1949 and 1984. 
Territorial changes were caused on the one hand by•the 
transformation of the economic, social and political 
relations, and on the other by the change of the national 
boundaries. 
Further on this study going to examine what role ge-
ography played in the preparation of administrative ter-
ritorial reforms in particular historical situations, 
what attitude it had towards internal political division, 
and will also attempt to give an idea  of  the after-effects 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 20 - 
of internal political division on the theoretical devel-
opment of geography. 
A) Administrative geography in the period preceding World 
War I  
The Compromise of 1867 regulated the relation of Hun-
gary to Austria as defined by political law, and created 
the general political conditions and state framework of 
capitalist development in Hungary. In 1868 the various 
territories of historical Hungary as defined by political 
law were defined. Transylvania was reunited with the 
_so-called mother country, Croatia - Slavonia - Dalmatia 
became member-countries, while Fiume (Rijeka) was annexed 
to the country "as a separate body". The laws of 1867 and  
1868 gave birth to a complex  state  structure created ter-
ritorially as well as constitutionally. The country con-
sisted of territories of different legal status, thus it 
was regarded as a state of imperial structure. 
The census taken in 1870 was still organized within the 
feudal administrative framework. The territorial adminis-
2 
tration of the country of 325,411 km
area was carried 
out by 102 counties and territories of the same legal sta-
tus (the provinces, seats, thousands) and 666 districts. 
• The administration of settlements took place within the 
framework of 98 royal boroughs (they had the same rank 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 21 - 
as counties), 91 corporate towns (these were not part of 
the district framework but were under direct county gov-
ernment), 769 market towns and 16,373 townships of rural 
character. 
Following state territorialization, reform of internal 
administrative division was also commenced. The legal and 
territorial system of municipal and communal administra-
tion was regulated and then the modification of the ter-
ritorial system of counties ensued. 
In the course of the rearrangement of settlement ad-
ministration some of the royal boroughs, being equal 
in 
rank to the counties, maintained their municipal character 
and became municipal boroughs; the majority of them,how- 
ever, regressed. In 1871 the reform of the legal 
status 
and administrative division of large and small villages 
took place. Three categories of communities were estab-
lished (corporate towns, large and small communities). 
(This system remained valid until 1949 with only small 
alternations). The districts within the counties included 
the communities but as administrative units they did not 
have any authority, while villages were organized 
into 
notarial districts. 
The territorial reform of the counties in 1876 aimed 
 
at abolishing the territorial municipalities of feudal  
origin and character, and at establishing the unified ter- 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 22 - 
ritorial system of counties. On the Great Hungarian Plain 
and in Transylvania significant territorial changes oc-
curred. In Transdanubia the establishment of modern pub-
lic administration took  place mainly within the framework 
of the historical county  boundaries. 
After the implementation of the reform in 1880 the local-
territorial administration of the country took place with-
in the framework of 80 counties or military districts, 46 
municipal boroughs, 137 corporate towns, 483 districts, 
1,914 large and 16,177 small communities. 
In this period geography is still lagging behind, 
it  
has no instrumental role in the preparation of 
country  
planning. Geography soon adapts itself to the new county 
boundaries and discusses the geography of the country ac-
cording to the new boundaries. The new administrative 
division represents an endowment and territorial -  framework 
for geography, the changes are merely acknowledged (K. 
Ballagi - P. Kiraly, 1878). 
The decomposite character of the Hungarian state and  
the striking disproportionateness of administrative divi-
sion, its distorted, sometimes irrational features, par-
ticipated in the development of administrative geoqraphy  
in Hungary.  
Within Hungarian geography a specific and separate trend 
is represented by constitutional geoqraphy, by which the 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 23 - 
geographical components of the Austro-Hungarian dualism 
were dealt with and the consideration of the administra-
tive possibilities and contents of a trivalist (Austrian, 
Hungarian, Slavian) monarchy also appeared as a concom-
itant phenomenon of the political processes (R. Havass, 
1909). 
Already in the fist modern synthesis of the geography 
of Hungary gpeat attention is paid to the study of the in-
ternal political division of the state territory. Gy. Prinz  
considers the most important task of administrative ge-
ography to be the study of the internal political bound-
aries, above all county boundaries. According to him the 
majority of the internal political boundaries do not rep-
resent natural boundaries (on the surface of the earth 
they are actual dividing fines, natural barriers) 
but 
rather artificial, legal artefacts. In spite of this the 
internal political boundaries should be of high )r'.iority 
in geography, as they play the same role of dividing as 
the natural boundaries (Gy. Prinz, 1914). 
In his analysis and criticism of the internal political 
boundaries Prinz also considers the natural and economic 
factors, on the basis of his earlier transport geograph-
ical research; however, he concludes that basically the 
conditions of transport should be taken into consideration. 
Only a combined consideration of the space, time and cost 
of transport may lead to the formation of a rational ter-
ritorial division. 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 24 - 
A statement of universal validity is claimed by Prinz 
in saying that administrative centres are to be located 
in the centres of the territory administered, and 
that 
only thus can it be ensured for the population of the par-
ticular territory to reach the centres at approximately 
the same cost and during the same time. 
Prinz also touches upon the geographical issues of the 
district administration covering several counties and 
clearly formulates that given the natural political unity 
of the state, division into districts is a difficult task 
because it has neither geographical nor historical foun-
dations. 
In summary it can be concluded that Hungarian geography 
reached a critical analysis of the geographical issues of  
administrative division as early as the period preceding 
World War I,  and that under the perceptible influence of  
international - mostly German and French - geography the  
foundations of the geographical principles and research  
of administrative division were at this time laid down.  
B)  The connection between geography and public admin- 
istration in Hungary between the two world wars  
- The Autro-Hungarian Monarchy was defeated in World-War 
I. The Monarchy collapsed, and historical Hungary disin-
tegrated. After the enforcement of the Trianon Peace Treaty 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 25 - 
only 28.5 % (92,833 km 2 ) of the former territory of Hun-
gary (325,411 km 2 ) remained under Hungarian jurisdiction. 
The number of the population fell to 7,606,971 
(36,4 %) 
as compared to 20,886,487 in 1910. Of the former  72 count-
ies  only 10 territories remained whole within the  new na-
tional  boundaries, 25 partly and 37 completely being an-
nexed to the new states. In 1921 35 counties 12 municipal 
boroughs, 
36 corporate towns, 162 districts, 985 
large 
and 2,425 small communities (the last were united by 712 
notarial districts) performed the duties of administration. 
After changes of boundaries by the peace treaty the 
already existing disproportionateness and contradictions 
of our administrative division worsened. (The smallest 
2 
county in 1920 was Ung with an area 16  km
and 1,397 
inhabitants, the biggest one being Pest with an area of 
2 
12,034 km
and 1,161,325 inhabitants). 
Within the new national boundaries the reform of the 
administrative division became imperative. 
The measure and direction of the reform were 
funda- 
mentally determined by political intention, thus in 1923, 
the broken counties along the border of 
the country 
were united in term of 
"provisionally" in this manner 
the number of the counties  decreased  to 25. 
By  this time geography had gone'as far  as to give  a 
systematic theoretical interpretation of administrative 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 26 - 
organization  and division and approach it as a factor or-
ganizing and  influencing  the life  of the 2o2ulation di-
recting its movements and controlling its activities. 
In the period between the two world wars three schools 
of thought produced significant achievements in the inves-
tigation of the geographical aspects of administration, in 
the elaboration and further development of the theoretical 
foundations and categories of administrative geography. 
At the Budapest Economic Faculty, at the Geographical 
Institute headed by P. Teleki and at the Institute of Po-
litical Science, political geography was studied and the 
interpretation of the geographical issues of administrative 
division was reached within this field. 
At the Institute of Administration Theory organized and 
headed by Z. Magyar/ aim-oriented research was carried out 
in the analysis of the Hungarian administrative division 
and the creation orthe new administrative division at the 
time of the preparation of the planned administrative 
reform. in the 1930s. This research was partly done by Te-
leki's students. 
The representatives of the third school were grouped 
around Gy. Prinz at the Geographical Institute of the Er-
zsebet University of Pecs. Prinz and his students analysed 
the geographical issues of public administration, depart-
ing from the investigation of transport and settlement ge-
ography. 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
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From among the three schools involved in the research 
of the geographical issues of public administration 
am going to dwell only upon the activities of the school 
of Teleki and Gy. Prinz. 
a) The endeavours of Teleki's school  
in territorial division  
P. Teleki, the founder of modern Hungarian economic 
and political geography and the outstanding politician 
of the period between the two world wars, started to deal 
with the geographical issues of administrative division 
and territorial organization for geograpico-theoretical 
and practical political reasons. 
According to Teleki, the role of geography is to inves-
tigate all the economic, social and political phenomena 
that are connected in some way with the natural environ-
ment. Teleki is the adherent of an objective landscape 
concept, landscape  -is  a  unit of life and represents hig-
her biocenosis in his view. According to him geography 
is the study of all economic, social and political phe-
nomena on the basis of landscape and landscape determi-
nation (P. Teleki,1903, 1936). 
The territory of a country is not homogeneous 
but 
rather a system of individual and hierarchically inte-
grated landscapes; thus, an analogy can be drawn between 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
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the classification of landscapes and administrative di-
vision. 
Teleki  completed his reform project in 1921 but 
he 
had been dealing with the geographical issues of state 
formation and administrative territorial organization as 
early as 1904. He divided historical Hungary - after its 
disintegration - into administrative units, departing from 
a landscape deterministic approach and taking natural land-
scapes as the basic (P. Teleki, n.d.). In defining the 
boundaries of the natural landscapes and territories 
of 
administrative units besides the dominance of the aspects 
of nationalities he took into consideration the natural, 
economic, social, historical, settlement network, trans-
port and supply factors as well. The thus formed natural 
landscapes were to comprise the territories of the count- 
ies, 
nd the administrative d-ivision into districts was 
to be implemented on a similar basis  (Fio.1). 
Teleki's project did not have practical sianificance 
as he had made it with reaard to non-existinn 
national 
territory. It has only theoretical and historical value 
but it greatly determined  Hungarian  geographical thought 
between , the two world wars;  in the final analysis he  was  
the first representative of landscape 
admir;stration the- 
ory  in Hunaarv. Teleki's concept  was express.y determined 
by the landscape geographical  school  of Vidal de la Blache, 
Clementel's regionalization project but he was also 
in- 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 29 - 
fluenced by the landscape aeographical, regionalization 
and landscape administration ideas of the English geog-
rapher C. B. Fawcett. 
Teleki rejoins the research of the geographical issues 
of public administration in the course of Magyary's 
ra- 
tionalization activities in the 1930s. This 
time Teleki  
makes proposals for the rationalization of Hungarian ad-
ministrative division on the basis of French examples.  
He retained his landscape geographical approach but 
in  
the new situation he placed greater emphasis on the role  
of economic relations.  
For Teleki the adoption of landscape state and land-
scape administration theory forms the "scientific basis" 
of the revisionist policy in the early 1S20s. The scien-
tific confirmation of the revisionist policy becomes his 
main purpose, therefore his approach does not go beyond 
the theory of landscape administration, although he is 
aware of and follows in the wake of the changes in geo-
graphical theory. 
The comprehensive  study  of Gy. Hantos on administrative 
geography (with 56 detailed and ',ynthetizing maps) is, on 
the one hand, a diagnosis made at the "sick-bed of public 
administration" .„  and a proposal for rationalizing region-
al administrative division (Gy. Hantos, 1931). 
First, Hantos sets out to demonstrate that the division 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 30 - 
of individual administrative sectors is disproportionate 
in relation to both territory and population. The acces-
sibility of seats is not synchronized with the territo- 
ries subordinated to the seats. The division are 
inde- 
pendent of one another, the territories and centres 
of 
the individual sectors do not coincide. The territorial 
division and system of centres are puzzling for the cit-
izens and state alike (Fig. 2).  
Before the reform proposal of administrative division 
Hantos performs the geographical analysis on transport 
indispensable tb the administrative division of the coun-
try. He reveals the possible transport gravity zones with-
in half a day's or one day's 
journey and points out which 
centre may be reached from which territory within one day 
(Fig. 3). 
His final conclusion is that the role of trans- 
port must not be exaggerated. If we carried out the ra- 
tionalization of the.regional administrative 
division  
only on the basis of the  transport geographical situa-
tion and accessibility of the respective towns, the re-
sult would be even greater disproportionateness.  
After analysing the existing regional division and the 
transport geographical situation of the respective cen-
tres Gy. Hantos makes a proposal for reforming the sys-
tem of territories and centres of reaional adminis-
tration. He places in the forefront the regional divi-
sion to be formed around the "seven natural centres" 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
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(Budapest, Debrecen, Gy6r, Miskolc, PE:cs, Szeged, Szombat-
hely). He does not take a definite position concerning the 
exclusiveness of this division but he claims that the de-
crease or increase in the number of the reoional territo-
rial units may cause serious difficulties. Hantos also made 
a summarizing map of his proposals. This map reflects a 
significantly improved - although due 
to 
the 
distorted 
county boundaries disproportionate and irregular - 
divi- 
sion (Fiu. 
 4). 
 
Besides Hantos it is worth mentioning the 
name 
of P. 
Elek, from Teleki's school. Elek is mainly concerned with 
the manacement of agriculture and within this framework he 
develops Telcki's landscape administratibn theory. He e-
laborates the possible system of the realization of land-
scape administration at the national boundaries of 1 5 39 
(Fic._5). The small landscapes (districts) nave to be for-
med around the centres with good transport connections 
in such a way that both the soil and the agricultural way 
of life become homogeneous. Social life, the direct man-
agement of production and administration having the great-
est impact on the population take their places within this 
framework. The towns comprising the centres of the mezo-
landscapes should also be defined on the basis of good 
transport, their authority being extended onto a 
terri- 
tory still representing a homogeneous way of life, of the 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 32 - 
size of a county. The way of life in a large landscape for-
med by the combination of 3-5 medium landscapes is no 
longer entirely uniform, nevertheless it is still an out-
standing, characteristic framework in comparison with the 
other landscapes. The centre of a large landscape is a 
real metropolis, which represents the large landscape out-
wards and defends its interests against 'other landscapes 
(P. Elek, 1940, 1942). 
b) Prinz's  reform projects 
The administrative geographical proposals that served 
practical purposes in the period between' the two World 
Wars are associated with Gy. Prinz's  name. Prinz is also 
an adherent of the objective  landscape concept but with 
respect to administrative organization  he lays stress not 
so  much upon the aspects of landscape geography  as upon 
the  approach of transport geography and gavity zone. 
In 1922 he elaborated his administrative territorial 
reform project concerning the new national boundaries. Aft-
er a critical survey of existing territorial division he 
makes a proposal for 23 counties, all of which are trans-
port geographical units. Besides the division of the 
counties he examines the transport geographical founda-
tions of the administrative division of regional charac-
ter which cover  several  counties, but in the final anal-
ysis he disclaims the justification of the division into 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
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urban districts within the new national boundaries. 
The greatest merit of the project consists in the exact 
criticism of the administrative division of the 
country 
and in making proposals for a rational division 
of 
the 
counties on the basis of homogeneous and purposeful 
ge- 
ographical principles. Surveying the planned 
division, 
however, it can be concluded that the aspects of 
trans- 
port geography cannot serve as the exclusive foundations 
of territorial division, for in this way insignificant 
settlements (Simontornya, Kiskorbs, Kisterenye, FLizesgyar-
mat, Vasiirosnameny) would become county seats  (Fig. 6,7,8). 
In the 1930s the attention of Prinz is turned 
again 
to the geographical issues of administrative division. In 
his view the three basic criteria of rational internal 
di- 
vision are: I) proportionality between the size of the ter-
ritory and the population; 2) the size of the globular shape 
of the territorial units; 3) the adjustment of the terri- 
torial units to the channels of communication. Prinz spe-
cifies 6 factors - the relief, population density, cul-
tural standard, degree of production, road network and 
costs of travelling - the exploration 
of 
the 
internal 
interconnections of which should serve as the basis 
for 
the new administrative division (Pinz, 1933a). 
After the elucidation of the principles he sums up the 
geographical method of the formation of administrative di- 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 34 - 
ision under 5 headings. In  formulatina the 
 aspects 
he 
aims at  complexity, taking into consideration 
 the comoo-
nents 
 of  political 
 science, 
 economy and sociology 
(Gy. 
Pinz, 1933b). 
1. The basis of any rational territorial division con-
sists in deciding how many grades state administration 
should have. Prinz's conviction on this point is that in 
the case of the Hungarian state territory the two-grade 
administrative division is optimal, in this case counties 
(comitats) should be expanded to the size of the Austrian 
"Land", while districts to that of "Bezirk". (Prinz's so-
called two-grade administrative division corresponds to the 
notion of the three=grade administrative division of mod-
ern political law. In political law the components of 
settlements or rather larger settlements organized as ter- 
itorial units are reaarded as first-crade 
territorial 
units; territories formed by the combination of the first-
grade territorial units (districts, larger towns) are sec-._ 
and -grade 
 territorial units; the territories built 
upon 
the second-grade territorial units become  third-grade 
 ter- 
itorial units (e.g.: counties). 
2. The first and most important issue of the division 
o.f the state territory into internal political units 
is 
the determination of the size of the territorial 
units. 
In the analysis of the size of the territorial units the 
point of departure is the average area of the present ex- 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
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- 35 - 
isting units. (The average area of the special 
adminis- 
2
tration units of regional character is 15,000 km
, 
the 
average area of the counties is 4,753 km 2 , and that 
of 
2.
the districts 644 km
) Prinz feels it necessary to ex-
pand the area of the counties. His viewpoint is that only 
larger counties are capable of generally developing their 
seats and towns. 
3.
In establishing administrative division 
tne first 
step to be taken is to determine the area of the districts. 
It is not the counties that should be divided into 
dis- 
tricts, but the optimally formed district territories that 
should serve as the basis for forming the counties. 
The 
forming of the optimal districts 
based on the theoret- 
ical assumption that the narrow gravity zones of the mar- 
ket towns formed under the influence of several 
factors 
may be regarded as the suitable basis of division 
into 
districts. Prinz also touches upon the complex, and 
for 
a long time problematic, interrelations of towns and dis--
tricts. He  regards 
 his own  district   system 
 as a territo-
rial one which  includes the  towns as well. He extends 
the territorial approach elaborated in connection with the 
districts onto the relationship of municipal boroughs  and 
counties too. From a geographical aspect he finds it use-
less to separate the municipal boroughs and counties. 
4. He unites the established districts into territori-
al units of higher degree on the basis of transport geog- 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 36 - 
raphical aspects. He groups the 162 districts around 14 
transport junctions. 
5. In spite of the fact that Prinz disclaims the jus-
tification of regional (urban district) administration, 
he analyses its geographical issues because he thinks that 
administrative geography should allow for the possibility 
of the formation of urban district administration as well. 
At the same time he points out that on the territory of the 
Hungarian state it is not possible to establish a propor-
tionate administrative division because there are no real 
regional centres and there is a lack of road networks. 
We may analyse and criticize the process of territorial 
division elaborated and formed by Prinz from several as-
pects. It is obvious that in contrast with the contempo-
rary administrative division of the state he elaborated  
a project that was rational and kept the interests of the 
population in view, contributed to the functioning of the 
state administration and conformed to the development of  
the urban network. (Fig. 9) 
Research between the two world wars encompassed 
the 
analysis of the interrelations of the natural geographical 
environment, the issue of nationalities, settlement net-
work and administrative division. The representatives of 
geography elaborated several territorial reform propos-
als but there was no uniform attitude with regard to either 
the grades of territorial administration or to the con- 
- 
crete stages of territorial implementation.  

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 37 - 
C) Administrative geography  after 1945 
The Provisory National Assembly had already started 
to lay the foundations of a new, democratic Hungary in 
December, 1944 - before the complete liberation of the 
country. In connection with it the temporary administra-
tive division was regulated as well. These readjustments 
and the reannexation of villages eliminated the most con-
spicuous disproportionateness of the earlier division. 
These measures were based  upon  the earlier petitions and 
applications of the population and therefore the terri-
torial changes  met  with general acceptance in most cases. 
From the Liberation to the adoption of the Constitu-
tion of 1949 the different political parties - according 
to their political, power objectives and future expecta-
tions - represented diverse reformative administrative 
ambitions. Each party had some concept of adMinistration, 
which included the reform of the territorial division as 
well. 
The Constitution clearly decided and determined 
the 
system of administrative division for a long time. 
The 
Constitution did not alter the historically established  
administrative  structure, henceforward 
invariably 
the  
villages .,  towns districts and counties remained the set-
tlement or territorial units of Hungarian administration  
but by the democratic reformation of the role, situation 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 38 - 
and  tasks of the  settlements and  administrative territo-
rial units it brought about  decisive changes. 
After the adoption of the Constitution, first the re-
formation of the counties and subsequently 
that 
of the 
system of centres and territories of districts 
ensued. 
Instead of the former 25 counties 19 counties were formed 
eliminating the most striking territorial and population 
disproportionateness of the former division into counties 
(Fiq. 10). 
 In tie course of the reformation of districts 
140 districts were established as opposed to the former 
150. The established districts were of relatively small 
area and population; as a general rule that principle of 
administrative geography dominated which claims that dis-
tricts should comprise homogeneous territories from the 
aspect of geography, economy, transport and settlement 
network alike. Most district seats became the actual cen-
tres of the districts under the given circumstances. 
After the reform of the territorial administration the 
formation of the system of settlemjnt administration and 
organization took place. In this respect the administra-
tive redivision of Budapest has outstanding significance. 
In 1949 7 towns and 16 villages were united with Budapest, 
solving thereby the administration problem of the capital, 
which had dragged on for long decades. 
The administration of towns underwent significant changes. 
Three categories of municipalities were established: 1) mu- 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
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- 39 - 
nicipality under the direct government of the Council of 
Ministers (Budapest); 2) municipalities under the direct 
government of county councils; 3) munic.oaiities under 
direct government of the district councils (29). This new 
construction of urban administration did not prove effi-
cient, therefore in 1954 it was readjusted. The towns left 
the jurisdiction of the district councils and received 
rights equal to those of the districts, while 
Debrecen, 
Miskolc, Pecs and Szeged became towns of county rights 
equal in rank to the counties. 
Sweeping  changes 
occurred in the administrative divi- 
sion of villages as well. While before the establishment-
of th'e councils 1,191 large communities and 662 notarial 
districts were functioning, in 1950, 2,978 community coun-
cils were formed, from among which 170 joint community 
councils were formed from 361 communities. 
In spite of the heated theoretical and methodological 
debates, the renewed geography paid attention to keep-
ing the geographical issues of administrative division in 
the public eye. In 1948 a brief summary of Hungarian ad- 
min' 
ra 4. 've geography was published, written in the spir- 
it 
- traditional statistical description of territo- 
rie 
\ovgcs, 1948). 
Aftrr 
ne Liberation geographers ceased to consider 
the mecharictic deterministic geographical approach. They 
started to interpret the relation of nature and society 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 40 - 
as a reflection of dialectic interrelations. to the period 
following the Liberation reform proposals 
of 
landscape 
administration cannot be found,aithough it should 
also 
be noted that the conceptions of the representatives 
of 
natural geography laid greater emphasis on the consider-
ation of natural conditions informing the economic re-
gions of different levels. 
Geographers did not take an organic part in the prep-
aration of the  territorial reform of 1949. 
 On the one 
hand they summed up the changes and achievements of the 
territorial reform from the point of view of 
transport 
geography  (Fig. 
 11), analysed and criticized the 
area, 
boundaries and seats of the new counties (A. 
Vagcs, 
1952) and compared the transport geographical 
gravity 
zones with the new county boundaries, while on the other 
hand they examined the theoretical and practical real-
ization of the unity of economic regions and adminis-
trative territorial division (Gy. Markos, 1952). 
Research 
 in  economic 
 regionalization started in 
 Hun-
gary after the theoretical and methodological achieve- 
ments of Soviet   economic 
 geograzhv 
 had  been 
studied. 
Surveying the interconnection of administrative 
divi- 
sion and reoionalization, Markos stated right at the 
beginning of his research that the socialist state has 
the role of economic management not only at the highest 
but also at the medium and low levels. The units of 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 41 - 
administration and economic geography may not be independ-
ent of each other. The administrative division of the pol-
icy-organizing and economy-building socialist state must  
be adjusted to the economic functions, first, the econ-
omico-geographical division must be made and then admin-
istrative division be adjusted to it. It must be laid  
down as a principle that administrative and economic u-
nits must coincide, their boundaries must not cross one  
another. Within one economic unit there may be one or 
more coordinated or subordinated administrative units but 
their territory must not exceed the boundary of the eco-
nomic unit. It :  is feasible that an economic unit will 
become an administrative unit e.g.: in such a way that 
the boundaries of the county making up the majority of 
the territory are rounded off or by uniting the territo-
ry of two or more counties into an economic unit, fur- 
thermore by the division, the abolitidn of some 
part 
of the counties and by the advancing of specific terri-
tories (Gy. Markos, 1952). 
The division into economic regions initiated in dif-
ferent periods (mainly hypotheses, rough sketches 
in- 
terpreting the territorial endowments and spatial pat-
tern of the country) contained diverse hierarchical grades 
and different territorial delimitations (Fig. 12). The 
particular territorial demands of administration were 
taken into consideration only in some projects. 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 42 - 
The theoretical issues of the economic regions have 
given rise to much controversy within modern Hungarian 
geography, as a result of which the questions of the e-
conomic regions and administrative division have been 
treated with differentiation both in geography and in 
administration 
theory (P. Beluszky - T.T. Sikos  (ea), 
1982). 
Partly due 
to the differing results and 
the uncom- 
pleted character of economic regionalization, the govern-
ment organs did not put these projects in the 
forefront 
in determining the'territorial 
framework of national plan- 
ning; at the same time it is conspicuous that the 
deli- 
mitations of regions connected with national 
economic 
planning or projects 
differ just as much from one an- 
other as the economic regions determined geographically 
(Fia.  13). 
Since the 1960s settlement theoretical and geograph-
ical research relying on the theory of central places 
has gained impetus. The investigation of the functional 
and hierarchical territorial system of the sttlement net-
work and the interpretation of the town - countryside 
relationship have led to the contribution of settlement 
geographical research; that is, to the exploration of 
the settlement network of the country, it being formu-
lated that in forming the administrative division the 
territorial system of gravity zones must be taken into 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
— 43 — 
consideration. The explored, planned or expected grav-
ity zones do not coincide, nor can their boundaries and 
territorial system meet the demands and requirements of 
administration in all respects (Fig. 14). 
Since the 1970s the need for a complex foundation of 
territorial development and administration has led to an 
increase in theoretical and empirical research dealing 
with the territorial system of the economy, society and 
administration. 
E. Lettrich provided new information through his com-
prehensive, detailed exploration of the development_ and 
condition of the Hungarian settlement network 
in 
the 
1970s.She expressed the need for a new spatial disci- 
pline, administrative geography; but she did not make 
a 
proposal for reforming the territorial system 
(E. Lett- 
rich, 1975). 
Sur'veying the interrelation of the gravity zones, e-
conomic regions and aministration, P. Beluszky made an 
attempt to interpret the geographico-spatial structure 
foundations of administrative division. He analysed ways 
of adapting both the gravity zones and economic regions 
in public administration, but he did not take an exclu-
sive position with regard to either (P. Beluszky, 19804). 
Hungarian geography after the Liberation - despite  
its undoubtedly new methodological and theoretical 
a- 
chievements - paid less attention to the, detailed 
anal- 
ysis  of the various geographical issues of administrative 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 44 - 
division than before. Research was lagging behind as com- 
pared with the significance of administrative 
division 
and international geographical tendencies were not 
al- 
ways followed either. 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 45 - 
IV. THE GEOGRAPHICAL ISSUES OF THE 
ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM OF 1984 
If we take a look at the transformation process of Hun — 
garian administrative division in the period 
1950-1980 
(Table 1) 
 we may come to the conclusion that the number 
of counties remained unaltered (only the cvnty division 
of 1 district and some communities was changed), the num-
ber and significance of the districts sharply decreased, 
and by 1980 a significant part of the system of townsur-
roundings had been formed, replacing the districts. 
The 
number and population of the towns dynamically increased. 
The number of large villages decreased due to their ob-
taining the legal status of towns and their unification. 
Substantial rearrangement took place in the organization 
of the community councils; there was a sharp decrease in 
the number of independent councils and an abrupt increase 
in that of the joint councils. 
Summarizing, it can be said that during the past de-
cades urbanization and the stages leading towards urban-
ization have transformed the spatial structure of Hun- 
garian administration to a great extent. At the same time 
we cannot claim that the administrative organization and 
territorial system are entirely adequate in view of the 
urbanization processes. 
On January  1,  1984, substantial changes were brought 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 46 - 
about in the administrative division of the country. The 
districts were abolished and they were replaced by sur-
roundings of town and large villages. The jurisdiction of 
the abolished districts was decentralized, it was divided 
between the large villages and to a smaller extent the 
towns. This reform was in fact the first step toward the 
formation of two-level administration. Admini .ration of town- 
surroundings is only a temporary form which will 
last 
only until the conditions for the direct county 
govern- 
ment of communities are created. 
In the course of the territorial reform 139 town- and 
village-surroundings were established. From among the 
seats 139 town- or village-surroundings and 34 newly-
formed large villages of town rank were established. A-
part from 4 exceptions (Budapest, Hajduboszorm4ny, Szaz-
halombatta, Turkeve) the towns participated in meeting 
the solution of administrative tasks. In 34 large vil- 
lages of town rights the conditions for obtaining 
the 
legal status of towns were being created. 
In determining the size of the town-surroundings 
2 
factors were in the forefront: 1) the relations of the 
resulting gravity zones of the settlement geographical 
and economico-social endowments of particular commun-
ities and 2) the administration political considerations 
of medium-level administration. 
In the new—administrative territorial structure the 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 47 - 
number of medium-sized regions is of determining charac-
ter but quite a few regions with small- or large-sized 
settlements were formed as well (Fiq. 15). The system of 
-
the gravity zones of settlement network and the estab-
lished intersettlement relation did not come to the 
forefront by absolute standards in determining the admin-
istrative system of centres and territories (Table 2). 
In the preparation of the introduction of two-level 
administration 32 local councils fell under direct county 
government. These communities are not included 
in the 
division into town-surroundings. The limited 
character 
of the experiment is shown by the fact that in 11 counties 
communities under direct county government were not es-
tablished. 
The territorial reform of 1984 is  the result  of a num-
ber of compromi es, the extent of the scope of the ter-
ritorial change was determined by the politi,co-economic 
environment, and the unchanged character of the county 
boundaries represented an important limit. The concrete 
spatial structure of the new administrative division shows 
endeavours different from county to county as well. 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 48 - 
V.  SUMMARY 
Administrative reform have always been interlinked with 
the prevailing economic, social, political 
changes 
and 
endeavours. The territorial reform concepts of administra-
tion have also borne the mark of the determining proc-
esses of the epoch. We can also quote by way of examples 
cases when administrative division was 
subordinated 
to 
the political aims of the day. 
Since the formation of the Hungarian 
administrative 
organization 
its most important units have been 
the 
counties. In the course of historical development the func- 
tions of the counties has changed several times but 
their 
spatial structure 
shows considerable stability, 
in cer- 
tain territories they have 
been modified to a 
slight ex- 
tent. In contrast with the counties districts have changed 
a lot several times 
in respect of settlement (municipal 
and communal) administration and territorial administra-
tion. 
Administrative geography was called into being by ob-
jective social needs. The administrative 
geographical 
investigations explored the (often anachronistic) char-
acter of the inherited administrative division and com-
pared it with the new achievements of the development of 
settlement network, economy and transport. The research-
ers of administrative geography have made proposals time 
and time again for reforming and rationalizing the ad- 
_ 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 49 - 
ministrative division. 
We also have to realise that in most cases the repre-
sentatives of geography have taken up the position of 
"outsiders" with regard to the territorial reform, they 
have not had an instrumental part in their elaboration. 
This is due to the fact that the judgement of the funda-
mental geographical questions of administration and ad-
ministrative division often changed and that up to now 
there has been disagreement with regard to the optimal 
geographical fundamentals of administrative division. 
The achievements of administrative geographical re-
search - despite their contradictions- havP contributed 
to the exploration of the general theoretical and meth-
odological issues of administrative spatial organization 
but we must realize that the elaboration of the optimal 
fundamntals of administrative division is a compleX 
scientific task, where significant but by no moan's ex-
clusive tasks fall to geography. 
The reform of 
territorial division is always 
the 
result of complicated compromises of many factors and 
in its elaboration and planning we must keep 
in mind 
the fact that administrative div-is;on 
has 
not 
turned 
from the question of 
supremacy into a purely scienti- 
fic issue. 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 50 - 
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
APPENDIX 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
- 

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.

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▪ 
Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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• 
Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.

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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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•  Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
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Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
 
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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Hajdú, Zoltán: Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary. 
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 1987. 58 p. Discussion Papers, No. 3.
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Discussion Papers 1987. No. 3. 
Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary
77 
The Discussion Papers series of the Centre for Regional 
Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences was launched 
in 1986 to publish summaries of research findings on re-
gional and urban development. 
The series has 3 or 4 issues a year. It will be of interest 
to geographers, economists, sociologists, experts of law 
and political sciences, historians and everybody else who 
is, in one way or another, engaged in the research of spa-
tial aspects of socio-economic development and planning. 
The series  is  published  by the Centre for  Regional Studies. 
Individual copies are  available on request  at the Centre. 
Postal address: 
MTA Regionalis Kutatasok 
Centre for Regional  Studies of 
Kozpontja 
Hungarian Academy of Sciences 
H- 7601 PECS 
P.O. Box 199,  7601 I°CS 
Pf.  199 
Hungary 
Phone:  (72) 12 755 
Telex: 12 475 
Director general:  Gyorgy ENYEDI 
Editor: Laszlo HRUBI 
x 
x 
x 
Forthcoming in the Discussion Papers series:  
Investigations of Social Infrastructure in 
Rural Settlements of  Borsod County 
by 
Lamas Sikos T. 

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Discussion Papers 1987. No. 3. 
Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary
78 .  
Papers, published in  the Discussion Papers  series 
No.1 
OROSZ, ova (1986): Critical Issues in the Development 
of Hungarian Public Health with Special Regard to 
Spatial Differences 
No.2 
ENYEDI, Gyorgy - ZENTAI, Viola (1986): Environmental 
Policy in Hungary 

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Discussion Papers 1987. No. 3. 
Administrative Division and Administrative Geography in Hungary
Kiadja a Magyar Tudomanyos Akademia Regionalis 'Kutatasok Kbzpontja 
Felelos kiadd: Enyedi Gybrgy akademikus, _ foigazgato 
Sorozatszerkeszto: Hrubi' Laszlo 
KeszOlt: TEMPORG FqCS - 1987 - 1950. 
7 A/5 iv terjedelemben, 250 peldanyban. 
Felelas vezeto:_Dr. }<anal. Sandal. 

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