A kárpátaljai magyar óvodások számának várható alakulása 2018 és 2022 között

Author(s): József Molnár,Viktória Ferenc,D. István Molnár / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2019

Preschool education is the foundation of mother tongue education, and is one of the main pillars of national identity. Effective planning of the kindergarten network requires knowledge of the future development of the number of preschool age groups. The paper presents the results of the projection of the number of Hungarian speaking 3–5 year-olds in Transcarpathia in the 2018–2022 period. This data may determine the demographic basis of the Hungarian kindergarten network in the near future. The number of Hungarians, ethnically mixed Hungarian-Ukrainians, and Hungarian-speaking Gypsy children were counted separately, because the extent and possibilities of inclusion of the three groups in Hungarian kindergarten education differ. The study also includes the categorization of Transcarpathian settlements based on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the Hungarian-speaking kindergarten children living there.

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 Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Program ösztöndíjasainak tevékenységei

Author(s): Dániel Gazsó / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 3/2018

The Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Program (KCSP) has become one of the most widespread diaspora engagement practices of Hungary. It was launched in 2013 as the first large-scale initiative to specifically target the diaspora. The main aim of the Program is to preserve Hungarian identity, culture and language skills, as well as to strengthen diaspora relations with Hungary as their kin-state. To accomplish these objectives, in the first year, in 2013, the State Secretariat for Hungarian Communities Abroad sent almost fifty, then in the following years around one-hundred interns for six and nine month residencies to Hungarian diaspora organizations, to further their community work in various countries throughout the world. For a deeper and comprehensive understanding of the Program I carried out research on the activities of the KCSP interns by questioning them about their experiences in the years 2016/17 and 2017/18. This paper contains the main results of this research.

A közös indulás

Author(s): László Öllös / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 3/2019

The joint run of the Most–Híd and the SMK–MKP party at the next parliamentary elections is an issue of concern not only to a significant part of the Hungarian public in Slovakia, but, beyond doubt, to many Slovaks too. The main obstacle to the joint run is the hostility between large groups within the two parties. So they see each other not only as opponents but enemies that must be eradicated.

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 Letter to Tuzla

Author(s): Kenneth C. Asbell / Language(s): Bosnian,Croatian,Serbian / Issue: 1/2020

Personal reflection honoring the progressive cultural heritage of the city of Tuzla.

A Look at the Evolution of the Right to Self-determination in International Law

Author(s): Paweł von Chamier Cieminski / Language(s): English / Issue: 25/2020

The article takes stock of the historical development of the notion of the right of a people to self-determination in international law. It provides a coherent review of the main international treaties, customary rules, and legal rulings that shaped the evolution of the term over the course of the twentieth century. In doing so, it focuses on the main historical and political events, which had an impact on that process as well as the preconditions that have to be met in order for a people to have the legal capacity to execute the right to self-determination. Three main processes, which it focuses on are: decolonization, the establishment of a number of new countries following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the recent developments following ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo. It also delineates the subject of the legal definition of a “people” as opposed to a “minority”, describes the legal tension between the right to self-determination and the principle of territorial continuity in international law, and discusses potential further development of the term.

A magyar kisebbséget képviselő pártok választási sikeressége (1990–2004)

Author(s): Alpár Zoltán Szász / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1-2/2006

The main goal of this paper is to examine how the institutional distribution of political power within the party system of a country affects the share of power that can be captured by a minority on national level. (Such an approach relies on the empirical observation that in most parts of the world ethnic/national minorities compete for /political/ resources through the parties that claim to represent them.) To accomplish its task, the paper draws on theories of comparative government and party system theory, while targeting–as sample–post-Communist countries bordering Hungary and featuring Hungarian minorities, i.e., Croatia, Romania, Serbia–Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. Parties representing Hungarian minorities are analysed in order to provide a tentative institutional(ist) explanation of the electoral success of ethnoregionalist parties. The account focuses on systemic variables making up the participation dimension of political systems, more precisely, the nature of the electoral system (used for electing the lower chamber of national legislatures) and party system format. Apart from delineating a theoretical framework that helps to disentangle the relationship between the three variables, the paper offers a (new) definition of ethnoregionalist parties, too, as a means for delimiting their larger―for instance, all-European―universe. Moreover, it presents the theoretical basis of a triple test designed for (dis)proving the ethnoregionalist character of political organisations and performs it on twenty-eight Hungarian political organisations to show that only twenty-one qualify as ethnoregionalist (parties). Finally, the paper concludes that party system fragmentation is indeed a salient factor of ethnoregionalist electoral success. However, the quantitative method employed herein failed to confirm the strong, expected theoretical relationship between electoral system proportionality and the dependent variable. Hence, the paper hints, as directions for future research, to other possibilities for exploring the latter relationship.

A magyar nyelvhasználat közoktatási intézményekben

Author(s): Szilvia Varga,Tibor Toró / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2020

In Romania in the 2018–2019 school year, more than 121,000 Hungarian pupils studied in their mother tongue, mostly in Hungarian medium or Hungarian-Romanian dual stream schools. The linguistic environment of schools is a particularly important issue, as it is the first place where young people encounter the country’s official language policy, determining their attitudes toward multilingualism and how they will think about their mother tongue. The aim of this paper is to examine the differences in the top-down elements of linguistic landscape and language use between Hungarian and mixed schools and whether these institutions comply with the formal linguistic regulations regarding “schoolscapes.” The study argues that the linguistic landscape and internal and external communication of Hungarian and dual stream schools are very different: while in the former the mother tongue of the students is visible and frequently used, in the latter the official language of the country is the dominant one, and in many cases schools do not meet even the minimally regulated linguistic requirements. While most previous research has studied “schoolscapes” through qualitative research or case studies, this study uses survey-based online techniques to acquire representative data in the matter.

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 Modern Interpretation of Marxist-Leninist National Policy (On the Example of the National Minorities Issue in Uzbekistan)

Author(s): Kamola Saipova,Usmonzhon Butaev / Language(s): English / Issue: Special 2/2019

The aim of the article is to present a modern interpretation of the national policy of the Soviet government on the example of the issue of national minorities in Turkestan in 1917. The authors analyze a large amount of scientific material, including the documentation of congresses and resolutions of the government of Turkestan. Based on the research results, the authors conclude that the policies on national minorities under the administrative command system was contradictory and inconsistent. In general, the dynamics of the impact of the system on the sphere of national life turned out to be negative. Due to false ideological attitudes, the domination of administration, the poor scientific basis of policy, the national policy of the administrative-command system was, essentially and objectively, a denationalizing policy. The authors present a modern interpretation of this issue.

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 nagy menetelés a kispadig – A 2020-as szlovákiai választás magyar vonatkozásairól

Author(s): Gábor Harrach / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2020

A nemzeti identitás átörökítése a délvidéki magyar-szerb vegyes házasságokban

Author(s): Tibor Ladancsik / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2021

The aim of this paper is to present the processes of the transition of national identity in Hungarian–Serbian intermarriages in Vojvodina. The Hungarians of Vojvodina constitute the largest national minority in Serbia, with a high proportion of heterogamous marriages with Serbs. Assimilation is a frequently observed phenomenon in heterogamous marriages, in which the minority relinquishes its own national identity, which is replaced by the identity of the majority nation. In many cases, the minority partner does not pass on their own identity to their descendants, and as a result, the minority group gradually withers away. In this study, I present the transmission strategies of the Hungarian identity. During my qualitative research, I conducted interviews with Hungarians who live in intermarriages. From the interviews, I concluded that basically three strategies can be observed in the transmission of identity. Assimilants do not at all inherit their own national identity. Those in the intermediate category pass on certain elements of their identity to their children, but usually Serbian identity dominates. Those with a dual identity try to inherit their entire identity so that their children are free to choose between the two identities or have both.

A nemzetiségi kérdés alkotmányos szabályozása Ausztriában az 1848-1867-ig terjedő időszakban

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Author(s): Csilla Dömők / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 1/2018

It is promising, however it is not easy to present the issue of minorities in the Austrian constitutional regulation between 1848 and 1867. It is tempting, interesting and significant, since the main problem concerning the survival of the state of the multinational Habsburg Monarchy was the national minority issue. The question raised seems difficult, multi-layered and partly contradictory, since there were numerous constitution drafts and law proposals came into effect during the period between the Revolution of 1848 and the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and different starting positions were expressed in them. The general motivation of the civil-democratic movements was emancipation and political participation. Their claims were drafted based on the constitutional rights. Complying with constitution was in the forefront. The need for the recognition of the non-German and non-Hungarian inhabitants’ linguistic and political rights was in close relation with these requirements. In the focus of the Individual demands and programmes were self-governance and the autonomy of politics of the nationalities. At the same time raison d'être of the multi-national Habsburg Monarchy also emerged. The role of the Slavic nationalities in the Monarchy only emerged as a marginal issue.

A parlamenti választási rendszerek nemzeti kisebbségi vonatkozásai a Nyugat-Balkánon – harminc éve a demokrácia árnyékában?

Author(s): László Horváth / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2020

As of the 1990s not only Central and Eastern Europe, but also the countries of the Western Balkans were transformed from one party to multi-party democracies. Besides the political representation of the majority, the national minorities have also demonstrated political ambition and have sought visibility. At the same time the rights of national minorities, their participation in political life – especially due to the tragic events in the Balkans – have gradually shifted to the centre of attention from a marginal position. Among alternative solutions there are various methods for separate parliamentary representation of national minorities. These solutions have been put into practice in many of the above mentioned states. The aim of this paper is to review these alternative solutions of the past 30 years and the difficulties they have faced. The objective has been to provide a comprehensive exposition of the evolution of parliamentary representation of national minorities in the Western Balkans.

A Passage to Europe: Serbia and the Refugee Crisis

Author(s): Aleksandar Pavlović / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

In this text, I approach Serbian experience of the refugee crisis by referring to three statements taken both as a reference and point of departure: first, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić’s claim that Serbia was “more European that some European states”; second, the former Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanović’s claim that Serbia ought to “spread it [the refugees] around a bit”; and, third, Angela Merkel’s statement that the closure of EU borders could cause another war in the Balkans. These three statements, it is argued, provide convenient access to the official’s claims regarding the refugee crisis in Serbia and its echo in the region and abroad. In addition, in order to identify the views held by common people in Serbia, in the last section I will also briefly discuss popular reactions in Serbia to the issue of refugees in the last several years.

A Peculiar Case of Monitoring. Minority Rights in Romania as Seen Through the Lens of the ACFC and the COMEX

Author(s): András Bethlendi,Tibor Toró / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2018

Romania submitted its state report to the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) and the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (ECRML ) roughly at the same time, however, the evaluation reports of the two bodies took rather different turns. The paper analyzes these two documents comparatively, and contrasts them to the earlier evaluation reports as well. The comparison highlights several textual differences and sheds light on the attitude of the two evaluation committees. The argument of the paper can be summarized in three points: 1) the two reports interpret differently many aspects of minority rights in Romania, and seemingly only in the case of the FCNM did the input of minority NGOs make a difference; 2) the usability of the two reports depends on the context in which one wants to use them: the FCNM report has more of an agenda setting effect, while the ECRML focuses on legally more accurate recommendations; 3) the technical and standardized approach of the Committee of Experts of the ECRML is not always suitable to describe the holistic situation of minority languages in a country.

A Pertinent Contribution to Feminist Perspectives on Citizenship: More Than A Book Review

Author(s): Laura Roxana Grünberg,Diana Elena Neaga / Language(s): English / Issue: 1-2/2019

Review essay onon Maria Bucur and Mihaela Miroiu, Birth of Democratic Citizenship. Women and Power in Modern Romania, 2018, Bloomington: Indiana University Press