The Parliamentary activity of the Livonian exiles in 1792

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Konstitucija, 1791; Abiejų Tautų Respublika (ATR; Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów; Žečpospolita; Sandrauga; Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth); Abiejų Tautų Respublika (ATR; Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów; Žečpospolita; Sandrauga; Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth); Livonijos seimelis; Livonijos tremtiniai; Seimelis; Constitution of 3 May 1791; Constitution of 3 May, 1791; Dietine; Livonian exiles; Livonian sejmik; Republic of the Two Nations.

ENThe final years of the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth witnessed an intensive parliamentary life influenced by the changed sociopolitical situation within the country as well as geopolitical factors. The researchers of parliamentarism consider the period of the Four-Year Sejm (1788-1792) the epoch of essential changes which did not only bring radical reforms establishing a constitutional monarchy in Poland and Lithuania but also developed a qualitatively new approach towards self-government, which is primarily linked with the creation of civil-military commissions. Civil-military commissions set up in all administrative units - districts ñ by the decision of the Sejm of 1790, which also had to involve the representatives of the townspeople from 1791, became the first institutions of local self-government that were elected in district sejmiks and did not depend on a single social class. [Extract, p. 308]