Versenyben a történelemmel
In a race with history

Summary/Abstract: Laure Neumayer, a professor at the Sorbonne, discusses the critical decade and a half that preceded Czech, Polish and Hungarian accession to the European Union. She asks where and in what way the regime change transpired, and how this influenced public discourse, which became increasingly preoccupied with the notion of European integration. How far did public figures refer to the European Union – to “Brussels” – in order to legitimize their own policies with expectations regarding EU accession? The question is how “value” also becomes an “interest.” Where and how do reservations regarding the EU arise (the perennially cited “national interest”), and what effect do they have on the European policies of political parties and ultimately on public opinion? How have public attitudes and the EU’s “net worth” in election campaigns changed over the years? Laure Neumayer: L’enjeu européen dans les transformations postcommunistes: Hongrie, Pologne, République Tchèque 1989–2004. (The European stake in post-communist transformations: Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic 1989–2004.) Paris, Éditions Belin, 2006.

• Details
• Contents