INTÉZMÉNYI VÁLTOZÁSOK ÉS A POLITIKATUDOMÁNY ÚJ FELADATAI
INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES AND THE NEW TASKS OF POLITICAL SCIENCE ABSTRACT

Summary/Abstract: The present writing is the edited version of the talk given at the time when the author received the Bibo Prize. It attempts to interpret the institutional transformations of the recent years with the set of tools of social choice. The institutions bargained about during the process of the system change had included some problems of effi ciency and competition right from the outset which havebecome more dominant with changes in the power relations and hence preferences of the main parties. The actor, however, wording institutional transformation has over-valued the necessary extent and depth of transformation and has transformed the necessary institutional reforms into a moment of constitution-making in the background of which there had been the over-assessment of uncertainty in the system and a drive towards absolute certainty. The writing does not only see a political mistake in the assumption of this objective but also the exclusive assertion of power rationality on the side of the main actor. The political and social consequences of transformation, including the weakening of the set of democratic institutions as well as the distortion of the system of social norms warn that the achievements of political science as a discipline for understanding the political world should be enlarged by a critical eye to enable it to refl ect upon current and important issues.

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