A támogatás értelme
The Meaning of Support

Summary/Abstract: Political means have failed to induce a substantive change in the policies of Slovak governments regarding the Hungarian minority. In Hungary, an idea emerges which, in our view, represents the concept of a counterweight. These are forms of support that lie beyond the power of the governments of neighboring countries and offer benefits to minority Hungarians both in their home country and in Hungary. Examples include various cultural and economic subsidies, the benefits provided by the Status Law in Hungary, and subsequently dual citizenship. These measures aim, at least in part, to offset the disadvantages imposed upon the minority Hungarians by the state of which they are citizens, solely due to their nationality. However, it must be stated that they do not eliminate these disadvantages; rather, they merely make them easier to endure through alternative benefits. For instance, they do not elevate the mother tongue—a fundamental element of human identity—to the highest level of official state use, unlike the language made dominant by the state. Support attempts to establish a new equilibrium through a kind of disadvantage-advantage calculation, given that the majority of these subsidies fall outside the jurisdiction of the leadership of the countries where the Hungarian minority resides.

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