„People” Versus The „Elite Mobilization Frames In Hungary Befora And After 1989 Cover Image

A „nép” és az „elit” populista szembeállítása, mint mobilizációs keretértelmezés (frame) Magyarországon 1989 előtt és után
„People” Versus The „Elite Mobilization Frames In Hungary Befora And After 1989

Author(s): Máté Szabó
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: MTA Politikai Tudományi Intézete

Summary/Abstract: Elements of populism gained the momentum within Hungarian political discourse as follows; -anti-establishment, anti-elite, anti „political class”, nomenclature orientation -going with the people, civil society, national and rural plus ethnic community identity against the „alienated aliens” -blaming the institutions as elections and parliamentarism, which manipulated the „popular will”, the need for reviewing electoral results or even to annihilate them and repeat the elections -new forms of organising, building an „Citizen’s Alliances ”( Polgári Szövetség) with nation and civil society, where national and religious symbols play a role, cultural and social community building to establish hegemony beyond the sphere of politics in other social subsystems -remaking the form of the party giving momentum to the spontaneously developed civic initiative’s on the one hand, and dissolving the organisational identities of the centre right parties within a common These elements of populism emerged partly by recalling former experiences, structures and traditions of the anti- Communist dissent- analysed upon the lectures of István Csurka- or referring to Western center right party models in Germany(CDU as a Volkspartei) and Italy(Forza Italia) within Fidesz MPP in 2002. The latter development synthetised these elements already present within the campaign to a political strategy and organisational form within the May 2003 Fidesz party conference calling the party with the new name to express the organisational and strategical alterations within the identification logo a „Fidesz-Hungarian Citizen’s Alliance” of the civil society, nation and the center right parties under the strong leadership democracy model of Viktor Orbán and based upon the governing role of Fidesz. This idea of the hegemony of the right based upon one organisational form provoked political discussions, and is at the moment rejected by the two other still existing parties of the Right, MDF and MIÉP: However Hungarian electoral system is majoritarian character may establish the bloc of the right with the hegemony of the Fidesz- Citizen’s Alliance , „Polgári Szövetség” despite of the political will of these parties. Consequently, Fidesz as opposition mobilist party moved to the side of the „Euroscepticists” with the MIÉP, which rejected the Europeanisation, meanwhile MDF upheald its partisanship for the EU developed already earlier. What we may result, is that in Hungary there is an influent opposition party with right wing populist character, combining the tradition of the anti- Communist dissent with the new forms of populism in Western democracies. Fidesz this way will move on the equilibrium between populist mobilisation and democratisation and Europeanisation. [...]

  • Issue Year: 2003
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 143-166
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Hungarian