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Political development: what, why, how? A comparative framework for Hungarian history
5-26Views:67The essay focuses on the comparative analysis of Hungarian political development before 1989–90. Instead of dealing with the 32 years since the change of regime, the author is interested in how many different interpretations of political development can be identified. The author singles out examples of political development in developed countries (for example the United States) as well as developing countries (those countries which have become decolonized in the 1960s). The starting point of the analysis is that Hungary cannot be described by either the categories used for developed countries or those that are used for developing ones. While the essay recognizes that the measure of progress at all times for Hungarian development is the example of Western development, it does not accept the approach according to which Hungarian development is a “dead-end” because it differs from Western development in many ways. The essay puts forward the hypothesis of the “normality” of Hungarian political development.
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Political science and the perception of time: Cyclical rotation between the present-centric and the historical perspective
94-130.Views:25In the first part of the two-part study the author posits that it is an exciting challenge for political
science to take stock of the scientific paradigms of the past 50 years based on their perspective
of time. The study looks at the past 50 years solely based upon the perception of time and
highlights the four paradigms deemed the most important: political development, transitology,
new historicism, and the school of American Political Development (APD). The study reviews the
authors representative of each paradigm and the most important elements of their arguments. Political scientists were susceptible to the historical perspective between the 1960s and the 80s. Later on, during the 90s until the mid-2000s the perspective for interpretation became
the present. In the last decade however, it seems that the interest in historical perspectives has
returned. The author concludes that a cyclical rotation can be demonstrated within political
science between the two perspectives, the logic of which would be advisable to study. -
Electoral Systems in East Central Europe
26-50Views:33The democratic transition in Eastern and Central Europe provides a good opportunity to
examine how to apply the findings of the science of elections in a new dimension. This study
based on 167 elections in 23 countries shows the formation, evolution and political consequences
of the new electoral systems. The hypothesis of the paper is that the elections and electoral
systems in this region not always correspond to the conventional wisdom. Our analysis divides
into five parts the region (Central Europe, Western and Eastern Balkans, Baltic States and the
other former republics of Soviet Union). This division helps to get an sophisticatad picture about
the emergence and changes of the new electoral systems. By showing country by country we can
demonstrate the similarities and differences between and within subgroups as well. Finally
using three well-known indices (least square index, effective electoral and parliamentary
number of parties) the study summarizes – country by country and subgroups by subgroups by
type – the political consequences for the proportionality and party structure. The analysis of the
167 elections demonstrates that Eastern and Central Europe does not show uniformity regarding
the political consequences of the electoral systems. Their influence is more moderate than in the
established democracies and they are also much more volatile. Their changes have shown rather
diverging than converging trend in the last quarter century. The conventional findings are
difficult to apply for this region, they are only partially valid, especially the formation of party
structure differ from the previous experiences. In sum the Eastern and Central European elections
do not invalidate the conventional statements of the elctoral studies but they offen do not show
corresponding image. So they significantly contribute to the further development and refinement
of the previous findings. -
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109-134Views:41In this second paper, we are attempting to demonstarte the changes in the political/citizenshiprelated and cultural-historical national identity of the Hungarian ethnic minority in Vojvodina.
With the end of Yugoslavia as a country this ethnic minority became Serbian citizens. The new
leaders of Serbia had an adverse view on this ethnic minority until 2014 when the Serbian
political leaderership changed their political identity and favoured the West instead of EasternEurope.The financial aid provided by the Hungarian Government to the Hungarians living in
Vojvodina, which targeted cultural and economic development in the area, aimed to better the
life and strenghten the national identity of this ethnic minority. Those who received financial
aid developed a better outlook on life. The possibility to acquire Hungarian citizenship easily strenghtened the Hungarian national identity of this minority and contributed to population
decline. While people migrating to Hungary are primarily motivated by access to better
education, others migrate to Western Europe for work. -
Political reorganization in the shadow of the pandemic and war: The 2022 Latvian parliamentary election and its consequences
73-94Views:44Latvia’s party system has been one of the most unstable in European comparison since the 1990s, essentially since independence and democratization. Although there was a period in the middle of the 2010s, which showed the stabilization of the range of relevant parties and a decrease in the number of parties, by the end of the decade the fluctuation between the parties of the Baltic republics was again high. The Kariņš cabinet, formed after a record long time after the 2018 election, nevertheless set a unique record in the country: it was the first government to complete a full four-year parliamentary term. The government faced two challenges during its tenure, the pandemic that began in the spring of 2020, and the Russian aggression against Ukraine that began on February 24, 2022. Both had a significant impact on the development of the party structure. The aim of this paper is to present the changes in the political palette of Latvian parties in the last two legislative cycles, to analyze the results of the October 2022 election, giving priority to the effects of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the transformation of the party structure and the results of the elections.
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Majority Decision Making
81-100Views:38Modern democracies, based on pluralism, recognize and affirm diversity, permit peaceful
coexistence of different interests, values and convictions, and advocate a form of political
moderation. For democracy to function and to be successful two of the most challenging
questions must be raised and answered: Who have the right for collective decision-making?
What principle should be used for these people to be elected? With the development of modern
democracies it has become more and more accepted the idea that democracy should rest upon
the principle of majority rule, coupled with individual and minority rights. Majority rule thus
refers to the quantitative aspect of democracy, while individual and minority rights express
the qualitative or constitutional aspect of it. A detailed analysis of democratic decision-making
processes shows that not all decisions made by legislature – whose members are elected by the
majority of the people – are effective and good decisions, and points at the fact that most of the
democratic decisions are not made by the majority but by minority groups, who quite often take
the initiative and can seriously influence the majority. This paper focuses on these issues. -
What’s the matter? A text mining analysis of political topics and user engagement on politicians’ Facebook pages during the 2018 Hungarian general election campaign
94-123.Views:24The research investigates the way users interact with leading topics of the 2018 Hungarian
general election campaign on candidates’ Facebook pages. It expects that the prominent
(immigration, corruption) and campaign-related topics generate more user engagement, while
policy topics and mobilization content are less interacted. It also tests the theory of issue ownership
in relation with user engagement. These expectations are tested on a dataset that includes all
posts (38030 posts) posted by all candidates during the campaign (511 candidates). Topics
are identified by text mining methods. The study demonstrates that corruption, development
policy and campaign are highly engaged topics, while immigration was more interacted only on
opposition politicians’ pages since the followers of pro-government candidates engage less with
immigration-related content. The most surprising result is that a reversed issue ownership effect
can be detected since politicians are generally less successful with their own topics. -
The Civis and the In-migrants: Spatial Patterns of Industrial Modernization in Debrecen 1870
186-241Views:50Scholars engaged in research into the history of Debrecen have long been eager to get an
answer – beyond their specific research inquiries – to the question whether the development of
the city had had unique features and if they had what would hallmark the unique character of
development? Was there or is there a kind of “Debrecenness”?
My study examines – with the help of a GIS relational database (DTTTA1870) – what
peculiarities can be grasped in the transformation of the traditional spatial and social structure
of Debrecen enforced by the political change and industrial modernization processes two
decades after the change of feudal regime (1848/49).
The analysis focuses on whether the alteration process of the factors determining the social
status (residential segregation, neighborhood, spatial segregation and coexistence, other spatial
and social hierarchical characteristics) in the cases of the “deep-rooted Debrecen residents”
(cívis) and of the settlers showed specific types described in the literature or showed specific
features. -
Public administration reforms in Central-Eastern-Europe
124-142Views:45The goal of this paper is in one hand to summarize how public administration reform trends
have spread in Central-Eastern-Europe since the transition, on the other hand to overview the
techno-economical paradigms which can determine the near future in the region. To analyse
spreading and development of New Public Management to Post-NPM doctrines periodization of
Drechsler and Randma-Liiv (2014) is being used. At the end threads and opportunities related
to technological development are aimed to be found in relation with public administration and
governance. Using entrepreneurial state’s concept shows that solving wicked issues needs active
state’s involvement, which might have a strong effect on public administration’s reform as well. -
Thomas Hobbes and the dilemmas of the natural state Second chapter: The tipology of the state of nature
3-22Views:54The primary purpose of this paper is to reflect upon four aspects of the Hobbesian state of nature. Firstly, the question is whether we can interpret this original state as a mythical, abstract,
imaginative and timless state, focusing only on the final conclusion of the Hobbesian theory, or
it may contain a well-defined timspan, having its own historical development based on a clear
logical construction. Secondly, this study aims at examining the natural character of man in
the state of nature, and his harmony with his environment in respect with their „naturalness”.
Thirdly, it tries to describe the assumed interpersonal relationships within the „primitve” state.
Fourthly, the paper presents different states of nature reasoned out from a close reading of the
text. All four aspect may help us to get a better understanding of the ambivalent character of the
Hobbesian state of nature. -
Social vulnerability and interpersonal support in disaster experienced Hungarian settlements
27-53Views:70Natural disasters unequally affect poor and wealthy populations, which can be observed everywhere regardless of the economic performance of the respective country. Paradigms focusing on physical hazards and response can not be considered, while social, political and cultural causes are rarely mentioned in the discussions around particular disaster events. Marginalized households and communities, and populations with less income are more affected by disasters. A significant proportion of Hungary’s settlements are deprived or otherwise marginalized, which makes it necessary to raise social and economic questions related to disasters, and investigate them from a spatial aspect. This study is based on case studies of five disaster-affected settlements and encompasses a social vulnerability approach. The research is based on interviews with key informants involved in response to the respective disasters and broadened with an experiment to use the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List as an instrument to investigate community resilience. The ISEL is capable of observing the individuals’ self-perception of themselves in their communities and how they can rely on others in their environment. The survey, with the participation of 103 people, discovered discrepancies in the level and structure of interpersonal support, which is tangible based on the interviews.
