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As prime minister, Bethlen dominated Hungarian politics between 1921 and
1931. He fashioned a political machine by amending the electoral law,
eliminating peasants from the Party of Unity, providing jobs in the bureaucracy
to his supporters, and manipulating elections in rural areas. Bethlen restored
order to the country by giving the radical counterrevolutionaries payoffs and
government jobs in exchange for ceasing their campaign of terror against Jews
and leftists. In 1921 Bethlen made a deal with the Social Democrats and trade
unions, agreeing, among other things, to legalize their activities and free
political prisoners in return for their pledge to refrain from spreading
anti-Hungarian propaganda, calling political strikes, and organizing the
peasantry. In May 1922, the Party of Unity captured a large parliamentary
majority. Karl IV's death, soon after he failed a second time to reclaim the
throne [in Hungary] in October 1921, allowed the revision of the Treaty of Trianon to rise to
the top of Hungary's political agenda.
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