Stephen Bernat

* Rimaszombat, July 3, 1854 – † Budapest, January 19, 1942 / jurist, agricultural economist, university professor, newspaper editor, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1927) ; ; He studied law and political science at the universities of Budapest and Vienna, and received his doctorate in 1877. Between 1877 and 1888, he was a draftsman at the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Trade. In 1884 and 1885, he made a study trip to Western Europe and the USA. In 1888 and 1892, he was the inspector of vocational schools at the Ministry of Religion and Public Education. In the mid-1880s, he came into closer contact with the cooperative movement, left the state service in 1892, and in 1894 founded the Hangya Cooperative with Count Sándor Károlyi and others. In 1906–1910, he was a member of parliament for the Rimaszombat constituency with a constitutionalist program. Between 1919–1925, he was a public full-time professor of agricultural policy at the Faculty of Economics of the Budapest University of Science and Technology (dean of the faculty in 1919–1921). In 1925–1927, he was vice-president of the Hungarian National Bank. He was an internal collaborator and editor of numerous political and professional newspapers (e.g. Szövetkezés, Hazánk, Magyar Gazdák Szemléje, Idószaki Értesítések, Köztelek). The Hungarian Academy of Sciences elected him a corresponding member in 1906, and a full member in 1927. ; ; His main works: ; The export of our wheat and flour against foreign competition, 1884, ; North America. Economic and social sketches, 1886, ; The distribution of wealth in the new Hungarian society, 1888, ; On the future of cooperatives, 1891, ; Economic cooperatives in our country, 1891, ; Eight-hour working hours, 1892, ; On the threshold of changes (social policy studies), 1893, ; On small crafts, 1895, ; Hungary pledged (also in German), 1895, ; The purpose and legitimacy of Hungarian agricultural efforts, 1896, ; Cooperatives in Economic, Moral and Political Aspects, 1902, ; Agrarian Policy, 1903, ; The Past, Present and Future of Hungarian Democracy, 1904, ; The Relief of Hungarian Land, 1905, ; Socialist Programs, 1906, ; On the Bankruptcy of Scientific Socialism, 1907, ; On the Distribution of Land, 1908, ; New Land Relief, 1911, ; The Agrarian Policy of the Socialists, 1911, ; The Results of Universal Suffrage, 1912, ; The Defense of Democracy, 1913, ; The Solution of the Land Question, 1922, ; Divorcees and Suicides, 1927, ; Studies in the field of agrarian policy and the Hungarian agrarian movement, 1927; Social democracy and Bolshevism, 1928; The electrification of the village, 1931; Struggles and results. Biography and memory, 1936; Disintegrating democracies, 1939.