A védekezőképes demokrácia elmélete és gyakorlata
Theory and Practice of Democracy Capable of Self-Defence

Summary/Abstract: The success of Jobbik has reached the level of theoretical refl ections. Be they approaches of political science, law or social psychology, they mostly try to process the thoughts of extremism or radicalism related to that party. The direction of the present paper fi ts into this line though with some shift ofgravity towards the legal discipline. My paper wishes to present the theory of democracy capable of self-defence (streitbare or wehrhafte Demokratie), positioned at the cross-sections of law and political theory, as refl ected primarily by German regulation. The most important basic thought of this understanding of democracy can be grasped in that it considers its own normative rightfulness as compulsory and consequently it extracts itself from among the democratically accessible bearings of a case. In other words: it does not allow for the elimination of democracy on a democratic basis. The practical consequences of this interpretation of the theory of democracy present themselves in constitutional law, in simple law but also on the level of social discourse, and that too in the form of various defence mechanisms. Its essence is hidden in the value-governed all-round fortifi cation of democracy against the potential destruction of assumed value neutrality and relativism. The consistent legal but also political and educational political implementations lead to the building of a kind of ‘fortifi ed democracy’ the debatable aims of which unfold in the prevention of the enemies of democracy and in their effective neutralization. The aim of the present writing is to contribute to the possible modes of theoretical approaches so far published in relation to political radicalism and to supplement them with a new consideration that seems to be novel and topical.

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