Országház Kiadó published the volume titled 18. századi Magyarország rendi országgyűlése [The Diet in 18th-century Hungary] written in Hungarian by István Szijártó M. in 2016 as part of its series A magyar országgyűlések története [The History of Hungarian Diets]. The high professional standard of this synthesizing monography is shown by the fact that its English translation was published in 2020 (Szijártó István M.: Estates and Constitution: The Parliament in Eighteenth-Century Hungary /Rendek és alkotmány. Az országgyűlés a 18. századi Magyarországon/. New York–Oxford: Berghahn).

In his work the author presents the most important elements of the political system of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 18th century in a language easily understandable for English-language readers. He places great emphasis on discussing the relationship between the monarch and the estates, the analysis of the main institutional factors that defined the operation of the Diet as well as the location of the Diets.
Szijártó analyses the changes that took place in the politics of the estates during the 18th century, which eventually led to the development of a constitutional estates polity alkotmányos rendiség. With the power and influence of the estates increasing, the possibility for compromises between the king and the estates was ever more limited and all this was primarily manifest in issues pertaining to the scale of the annual military tax and the tax exemption of the nobility. As a consequence, the landed nobility assumed a dominant role in the politics of the second half of the 18th century.

The book will serve as a useful read not only for the researchers of this area but also for those interested in Hungarian history.