Based on Hungarian period literature, the study presents the main features of 1920s Polish electoral law, while comparing it to the Hungarian electoral law of the same period. Those elements of Polish electoral law are highlighted that the interwar Hungarian literature covers. Likewise, the study outlines the two differing directions which – already apparent in the first decades following the world war – the development of Polish and Hungarian electoral law had taken, despite starting out on a similar footing in the wake of independent statehood. Before drawing conclusions – with a consideration of their impact on political life – the study touches upon, in both states, the structure of the legislature, the electoral system and the distribution of seats, the conditions of active and passive suffrage law and the questions surrounding the nomination process. While in Poland “politics was shaped by electoral law’s chronic state of crisis”, in Hungary the admittedly manipulated electoral law ensured governability.