"Itt kutatási szabadság van"

Beszélgetés a 60 éves Öllös Lászlóval

Author(s): Eleonóra Sándor,László Öllös / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 3/2017

László Öllös, political philosopher, associate professor, president of the Forum Minority Research Institute speaks about his professional trajectories, the communist regime, events of the 1968 revolution in Czechoslovakia, opposition activities, the Velvet Revolution in 1989, political transition in the CEE countries. He also details his public activities, theoretical and research work focusing on human rights, national rights, ethnic minority rights, constitutional issues, national identity, civil society. Among his special spheres of interest belong issues such as Slovak–Hungarian reconciliation, national division, European identity, political community, constitutional value system.

"MUSLIM by NATIONALITY" and the upcoming Neo-Ottomanism

Author(s): Ilie Iulian Mitran / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

The upcoming years are vital for the stability of the Balkans. The degree in which stability, or the lack thereof, will be present will highly depend on how well aligned are the political elites and intellectuals with the radical ideologies that are surfacing. A very firm act of disownment of radicalism that would come from the elites would raise some red flags among the mainstream society in regard to the danger that such ideologies pose. Even so, we must take into account, that in the case of states of the Balkans, information has more difficulties in reaching people in short time. This is mainly due to the rugged ter-rain, lack of efficient technology and poor infrastructure. The radicalization of Islam can be only perpet-uated through exploiting the weakest points of the local societies, mostly having to do with poverty and the lack opportunities for communal development. Using personal, material, gains as a means of twisting the minds of otherwise peaceful people and drawing them into fundamentalism is a technique that proved to be often efficient in the case of communities that are struggling with poverty. As time will progress, we will see the confrontation between the two Islamic traditions, now present in region, to be more visible, the future stability of the region will also be determined by which will gain the most ground.

"Здесь русский дух… здесь Русью пахнет!": Борьбас "русским духом" в Таллине в начале 1920-х гг

Author(s): Aurika Meimre,Antonia Nael / Language(s): Russian / Issue: 1/2014

This article is aimed at reconstructing the course of events that resulted in the relocation of a monument of Peter the Great in the capital of Estonia. The bronze standing figure of Peter by Léopold Bernstamm (unveiled in September 1910 to commemorate the bicentennial of the siege of Reval) was removed in April 1922. The reasons for its demolition were mainly ideological: for Estonians Peter the Great symbolized years of suffering under Russian rule. The controversy around Peter the Great attracted Georg Tõnisson (Gori), a graphic artist, who portrayed the czar in a series of caricatures published by Waba Maa and Meie Mats.

"Сви смо ми људи једнаки, а што је неко мало црњи, а неко мало бељи, не мења ствар"

Сексуална педагогија у Србији на крају 19. и почетку 20. века

Author(s): Ana Kolaric / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 2/2012

This essay explores (various cultural and pedagogical discourses of sexuality and sexual conduct. Those discourses were important for the processes of formation of the national state and its “proper” citizens. The analysis tried to prove that many concepts, ideas and knowledge(s) “travelled” from the Western countries to Serbia, where they were appropriated without any changes. To do this, the author has analysed how category of “race” was utilized in the Serbian “conduct books” and women’s magazines. In conclusion, the author pointed out the significance of historical examination of identities, which should help us form more reflexive and critical attitudes towards cultural heritage and traditions.

(حركات اإلسالم السياسي والسلطة في المنطقة العربية بعد 2011 ( مصر انموذجا

Author(s): Muhammed Salih / Language(s): Arabic / Issue: 1/2018

Some Arab countries, starting from 2011, witnessed a sequence of peaceful protesting demonstrations which the western media called the term (Arab Spring). But the new reality resulting from this, in its early stages up to 2013 represented an opportunity for the Islamic powers to show and disorder at the same time. Because these powers participated in the events of protesting and the peaceful an armed confrontation and pushed the Islamic political trend in general and the Ikhwan trend (Muslim Brothers) in particular to the field of the political work and experience the public party work, after being deprived, like many political movements in the Arab countries, from public legal political activity.

,,Дијалектичка равнотежа’’ институционалног система ЕУ у области спољног представљања: фикција или реалност?

Author(s): Dejana M. Vukcevic / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 4/2012

Dans cet article, l’auteur s’efforce d’analyser l’identité institutionnelle de l’UE en matière de la représentation extérieure. Malgré la tentative proclamée d’une plus grande cohérence et de l’efficacité dans le domaine extérieur de l’UE, le traité de Lisbonne crée une image institutionnelle complexe dans laquelle une représentation extérieure unique de l’UE est difficile. Cela est dû au fait qu’il y a un grand nombre d’acteurs et une confusion quant à la compétence dans le domaine de l’action extérieure de l’Union. Le nouveau traité demeure prisonnier d’un mélange hybride des logiques intergouvernementale et supranationale qui se caractérise par un manque de clarité des rôles des institutions prévus par le traité. L’article est divisé en deux parties. Dans la première partie, l’auteur analyse la nouvelle identité institutionnelle de l’UE dans le domaine de l’action extérieure. Dans la deuxième partie, l’auteur traite l’application des dispositions istituionnelles, marquée des tensions permanentes pour le contrôle des positions de pouvoir. Cela est dû à des dispositions vagues et imprécises du traité de Lisbonne laissаnt aux Etats membres et aux institutions une grande marge de manœuvre quant à l’interprétation de leurs compétences. L’auteur conclut que la pluralité d’acteurs dans ce domaine témoigne d’un compromis du traité de Lisbonne quant à l’allocation du leadeship politique dans le cadre de l’UE. Pour cette raison, il est difficle d’établir un équilibre entre les intérêts des Etats membres et des institutions dans la consolidation postLisbonne en matière de représentation extérieure ce qui n’est pas sans répercussions quant à la visibilité de l’UE sur la scène internationale.

15 TEMMUZ OLAYI ÇERÇEVESİNDE KOLEKTİF EYLEM ALGISI

Author(s): Elif SÜMER,Rukiye KAYA / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: 12/2017

The purpose of this study is to compare the collective protest perception of people who took the streets protest after 15th July 2016 and the ones who did not and therefore to reveal the meaning built by participation to the protests. Data for this study is gathered from interviews with 11 participants (6 of whom protested and 5 of whom did not after the coup attempt). In this study, interview technique was used as a data collection method and content analysis technique was used for data analysis. During analyses, perceptions of collective action between the participating and non-participating groups in the actions after 15 July were processed within the different frameworks in theoretical approaches which are concept of political trust, social identity and resource mobilization theories. Variations between groups was revealed regarding feelings and thoughts about collective action and the relationship between participating collective action and perceptions of collective action. These variations seemed to influence the emergence of different patterns of motivations for participation.

1989: Szempontok a rendszerváltás globális politikai gazdaságtanához

Author(s): Márk Áron Éber,Ágnes Gagyi,Tamás Gerocs,Csaba Jelinek,András Pinkasz / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 21/2014

This article rethinks 1989 – the year commonly treated as a milestone of regime change. As contrary to this narrow view, and with the aim of laying out the conceptual foundations of possible future research projects, we give a short overview of the way Hungary became incorporated into the capitalist world system and of the key global, economic, and geopolitical factors that influenced its dependent development. For this we present a historically sensitive, global political economic narrative within which we pay special attention to the way public debt had been accumulated and how this, in turn, shaped Hungary’s position within the world system. After our analysis of the regime change we continue with an overview of the main structural dynamics of the last two decades. Finally, through two short case studies, we show how our perspective can throw new light on the political ideologies and economic policies of the era. The accumulation of state debt was not a Hungarian specificity: instead, we argue that it was rather a result of the global restructuring process and of its concomitant effect of decreasing national state-sovereignty. In the following manner, we also argue that the emergence of debates (which were central in evaluating the regime change, revolving around issues like „democracy” vs. „dictatorship” or „planning” vs. „market”) can be better understood within our global, historical, and political economic analytical framework. In the long run we identify two economic development strategies – namely, the strategy of liberalization and the strategy of protectionism – both structured around the, nonetheless entirely unfulfilled, hope of overcoming Hungary’s semi-peripheral position by „catching up” to its Western neighbors. These strategies then can be analyzed on the base of how they relate to global cycles of accumulation; how their shifts were influenced by changes in the world system; and, in turn, how these strategies organized both various elite projects shaped by global cyclical dynamics and the interpretations about our historically unfolding dependent position.

A Case of Successful Transitional Justice

Fritz Bauer and his Late Recognition in the Federal Republic of Germany

Author(s): Jakub Gortat / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2017

Germany is an example of a country which has been implementing transitional justice for decades and is still active in this field. What is more, contemporary Germans have recently come to terms with their not-so-distant past and their negligence in this area by showing the falsehood, backwardness, and injustice as negative foundations of the young Federal Republic. This article evokes the person of Fritz Bauer, the prosecutor in the state of Hessen. His struggle for human dignity and the memory of his achievements after his death exemplify an accomplished case of transitional justice and the memory of it. During his lifetime he contributed to bringing to trial numerous Nazi criminals, even at the cost of habitual threats and disregard. Forgotten for a few decades, Bauer and his legacy have been recently rediscovered and studied. Eventually, Bauer became a movie character and was finally brought back to the collective memory of Germans. The belated, but a well-deserved wave of popularity of Fritz Bauer in the German culture memory proves that reflections on the transitional justice are still topical and important.

A Conceptual History of Political Regimes: Democracy, Dictatorship, and Authoritarianism

Author(s): Adam Przeworski / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2017

The labels we attach today to distinguish political regimes have histories. Applying them without understanding these histories is sometimes anachronistic and ethnocentric. I have little new to say about “democracy” and “dictatorship”, so that the discussion of these concepts is just a reminder. “Authoritarianism”, however, is a dubious neologism. I advance two claims: (1) In all regimes the power to command and be obeyed entails some dose of reason-giving, (2) What distinguishes regimes is the form and the extent to which the authority of rulers is monopolised by physical force. I conclude that the concept of “authoritarianism” adds little to the distinction between democracy and dictatorship.

A Forgotten Detail in the Cultural Landscape: a Ukrainian Version of Russian Formalism? National Identity, Avant-garde and Ideology in Literary Discussions in Soviet Ukraine (1920s–1930s)

Author(s): Galina Babak / Language(s): English / Issue: 32 (37)/2017

The 1920s in the Soviet Ukraine are characterised by significant variability of views on the meaning, social significance and mechanism of art and literature, however, all this theoretical and practical variety was limited by political restriction imposed by official communist ideology. Avant-garde groups and movements enriched modernist discussions by drawing attention to the fact that the revolution in arts and literature was of the same nature as political and social revolution. Numerous Soviet writers, poets, artists, philologists, etc. (including Ukrainian writers with their own national agenda) took part in these discussions; many of them were members of different literary movements, groups and organisations – and of course they had a different aesthetic orientation. One of the most important topics of Soviet theoretical discussions in the 1920s was the dualism of “form” and “content” in literature and art. Such discussions were held in Soviet Ukraine as well. Even though we cannot speak about “Ukrainian formalism” as an organised and disciplined aesthetic school, it is important to determine the “Ukrainian version” of correlation between universalist ideas of Russian formalism, internationalist Soviet ideology (in relation to the culture), and forming Ukrainian cultural identity.

A Jobbik mérséklődése az egyéni képviselő-jelöltek vizsgálatának tükrében

Author(s): Dániel Kovarek,Attila Farkas / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2017

Jobbik (The Movement for a Better Hungary) is generally the subject of scholarly attention due to the anti-gypsy sentiment typical of the party, its tone of speech ignoring political correctness, and its far-right connections. Nonetheless, in the past three years the tone of Jobbik’s campaign messages has become substantially more moderate, party offi cials distanced themselves from racist and anti-Semitic statements, eventually declaring that the aim of Jobbik is to reposition itself as a ‘real people’s party’. Given the freshness of this transformation process, only a handful of scholarly works investigated the topic until now, and even if doing so, the literature almost exclusively focused on the analysis of Jobbik’s parliamentary elite, and its management. This article seeks to analyze and understand the process by comparing Jobbik’s candidates fi elded in single-member districts in 2010 and 2014. Conclusions are drawn from quantifi ed content analysis of short candidate introductions (résumés and pledges), accompanied by the analysis of databases with variables on political career, electoral experience and former partisan affiliation.

A Kárpát-medencei magyar szórványok településszerkezete és főbb demográfiai jellemzői

Author(s): Patrik Tátrai / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2017

The present study aims at outlining the settlement characteristics and the ethnodemographic processes of the Hungarian dispersed settlements in the Carpathian Basin. Applying two definitions for dispersal (1. Hungarians constitute less than 20 per cent of the local population; 2. everybody belongs to the dispersed settlements who live outside the relatively contiguous Hungarian areas) the paper compared the current situation and perspectives of Hungarians living in neighbouring macroregions (Slovakia, Transcarpathia, Transylvania, Vojvodina). Research results show that 400–600 000 Hungarians live in dispersal depending on the definition. Although the public discourse associates dispersal with rural settlements, Hungarians are overrepresented in urban areas unlike the Hungarian clustered minorities in the rest of the Carpathian Basin. The dispersed communities keep changing rather than being stable; their dynamics (reproduction and disappearance) is closely connected to assimilation and migration. These settlements are characterised by unfavourable ethno-demographic features such as low natural growth and high rates of assimilation. As a result, the decrease in the number of the dispersed population far exceeds the clustered minority Hungarian average.

A konszenzusok felszámolása – Jobboldali populizmus és a „gender-ideológia” fenyegetése

Author(s): Eszter Kováts / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 22/2017

Since 2012, several European countries have seen the rise of conservative and, in part, fundamentalist social movements fuelled by the animosity against the perceived threat of „gender ideology” or „gender theory”. Being opposed to women’s rights, LGBTQ issues, certain administrative policy instruments (such as gender mainstreaming) as well as the public financing of gender studies departments, the advocates of these platforms tend to regard all political and non-governmental actors, administrative staff and scientific researchers who focus on these issues as a single homogeneous group and an organised lobby. This is partly manifested in grassroots or religiously-affiliated movements and partly in the agenda of right-wing and populist parties. More and more researchers are convinced by the transnational character of the movements as well as the broad impact of discourses and practices reaching across national borders and issues that we are not dealing with isolated cases, but a coherent phenomenon. Contrary to the three most frequent interpretative frameworks, i. e. the national/local political context, the discourse/mobilisation of the Roman Catholic Church, and the conservative backlash, I discuss these movements in the context of the rise of right-wing populism and on the basis of theoretical explanations seeking to grasp the demand side. On the one hand, I argue that the study of this phenomenon provides important clues for understanding the reasons behind the gain of populist forces in Europe and beyond. On the other hand, I propose that „gender” is not the final target for these movements which should primarily not be understood as mobilizations against equality. Rather, the emergence of these movements is a symptom of a larger crisis, and their ideologies are the surface, where „gender” is a symbolic glue. These mobilizations are rather the throes of a contest for redefining liberal democracy where, in the interpretation of its adversaries, „gender ideology” embodies numerous deficits of the established global power order and the so-called progressive actors, and they react to these by re-politicizing certain issues. Therefore, the interpretations limited to a ‘fight between values’ are rather an obstacle to understand the phenomenon, by repudiating or obscuring this important structural realignment. Based on Chantal Mouffe’s concept of ‘consensus’ and her critique of the established hegemony of consensus in liberal democracy, I discuss the contribution of three phenomena that are characteristic of the so-called progressive actors (including the feminis and LGBTQ actors), namely the neoliberal consensus, the human rights consensus and the consensus about liberal progress, to the rise of the movements against ‘gender ideology’.

A lakosságcsere keretében Nemesnádudvar községbe telepítettek visszaemlékezései

Author(s): Katalin Hollósy / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2018

The topic of the paper is based on my thesis which dealt with the Czechoslovak¾Hungarian population exchange. In the paper, I analyse interviews conducted with four elderly people who have been living in Nemesnádudvar where they were relocated in the year of 1947. The first part of the paper introduces the history of the exchange agreement and it also contains the short history of Nemesnádudvar, as well as the impacts of the relocations on the village’s life. In the second part of the paper I analyse the interviews of the personal views of relocated people and the historical circumstances prevailing at the time of relocation. The reminiscences tell the actions and show how the agreement influenced the further lives of the relatives as well. The path of their lives took different directions. In conclusion, the interviewed people evaluated their past according to their age at the time of the relocation,to the value of their property lost, and on the social contacts lost in their former homeland. Consequently, the evaluation of the historical events they went through was highly affected by emotions, which led to different results.

A meglepetések éjszakája – A 2017-es szlovákiai megyei választások

Author(s): Szabolcs Mózes / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2017

The aim of this paper is to introduce and analyse the results of the 2017 county-level local elections. The election produced many surprises. For example, the participation of voters was much higher than expected, the winner of the elections became the right-wing opposition, the Smer party lost many important positions, and the radical Marian Kotleba was not able to hold his post as the head of the self-governing Banská Bystrica region. The election reflected the ongoing tendency of strengthening independent candidates. The struggle between Hungarian political forces was won by the Party of the Hungarian Community (MKP-SMK), which earned almost four times more seats than the Most- Híd party. However, the Hungarian candidates were mainly successful in the regions with Hungarian ethnic majorities, and in the ethnically mixed regions the level of Hungarian political representation decreased.

A multietnikus nemzetállam

Author(s): Ildikó Bajcsi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2017

Szarka­ László:­ A multietnikus­ nemzetállam. Kísérletek,­ kudarcok­ és­ kompromisszumok Csehszlovákia­ nemzetiségi­ politikájában1918–1992.­ Pozsony,­ Kalligram,­ 2016,­ 376­ p.

A szlovákiai magyar politikai mozgástér változásai

Author(s): Géza Tokár / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2017

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the latitude of ethnic political representation of the Hungarian community in Slovakia from 1989 up to recent political developments. The latitude is measured by three factors: the amount of political power held by representatives of the Hungarian communities, the coalition potential of the parties focusing on ethnic policies, and the political compatibility of the parties representing the Hungarian minority. The Hungarian ethnic parties were involved in Slovak politics from the times of the Velvet Revolution; however, their ability to affect politics and policies was limited by party-specific ethnic agendas and incompatibility with numerous Slovak ethnic parties. In light of recent political events, however, the ideological differences have been reduced and the pragmatic nature of fragmented Slovak party politics opens up new channels for cooperation. Despite the changing political environment, the latitude has been weakening due to the fragmentation of the Hungarian ethnic political elite.

A TANDEM 2016 kutatás általános bemutatása és mintavételi eljárása

Author(s): Viktória Ferenc,József Molnár / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2017

The target group of the TANDEM 2016 Survey was the Ukrainian and Hungarian population of the multi-ethnic west Ukrainian region, Transcarpathia. The paper-based survey was carried out from May to August 2016. The survey was bilingual: in 44 settlements respondents answered our questions in Hungarian, in 55 in Ukrainian and in 24 settlements in both languages. The expression “TANDEM” implies that in this survey we put emphasis on the peculiarities of Hungarian-Ukrainian coexistence and the differences of perspectives on the same topics. All together we gathered 1212 questionnaires: 398 adult respondents answered our questions in Hungarian and 814 in Ukrainian according to a representative sample (the sample however was not proportionately stratified regarding the ethnic ratio of settlements).

Activist Localities in the Queer South

Author(s): Helis Sikk / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2018

Cultural anthropologist Arjun Appadurai’s theories about place link together various surrounding contexts: technology, media, economics, and ideology. He sees locality as a“complex phenomenological quality” (1996, p. 178) that we should not look at as context, but instead focus on how contexts define the boundaries of localities. Appadurai’s theories help to link global and local by taking into account the various surrounding contexts: technology,media, economics, and ideology. This paper uses Appadurai’s theory as a basis to explore how localities emerge in grassroots queer activist practices that combine offline and online tactics in their organizing. I use participant observation, in-depth interviews, and content analysis to gain an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of networked locality created by LGBTQ activists physically located in Southern United States.