Search

Search Results

• Sociological and Social Psychological Context of the Transition of Hungary, with Special Regards to Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County

  166-185

  Orsolya Pocsi

  Views:

  48

  The article gives a summary of the most relevant results of the sociological and sociopsychological special literature concerning the transition to market economy and political
  pluralism in Hungary. The transition affected the different regions and different social groups
  disproportionately. The article points out that the last three decades were not enough for the
  destruction of the legacy of state socialism resulting learned helplessness and paternalism.

• Majority Decision Making

  81-100

  Levente Nagy

  Views:

  50

  Modern 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.

• Neo-Hobbesian democracy: The theory of modus vivendi and democratic legitimacy

  25-41

  Milán Pap

  Views:

  44

  In political theory, the criticism of Rawlsian constructivist liberalism has been articulated in
  theories of political realism. John Gray, one of the promoters of realist liberalism, recommends
  a neo-Hobbesian way of social coexistence which is based on the conflictual and antagonistic
  idea of political life. It takes social values and forms of life as incommensurable in modern
  multicultural societies. Taking value-pluralism and its conflicts seriously, a theory of modus
  vivendi has been articulated among realist political thinkers. Being a post-liberal (or post-Enlightenment) theory, modus vivendi is more a practice oriented and open-ended theory than
  philosophical constructions based on high morality. Modus vivendi theorists make an emphasis
  on the peaceful co-existence of social groups and a moral minimum of the political society. One of
  the deficiency of the theory is that it says not much about democracy, though it would be highly
  useful according to two contextual considerations.On the one hand, a modern political system
  would be impossible or outrageous without any form of democratic legitimacy. On the other
  hand, there is an exhaustion of the liberal project(s) and the societies featured by multicultural
  prosperity. Besides constitutional protection, defending democracy in this new context means
  balancing between cultural and other value-oriented groups in modern societies. In my paper,
  I make an attempt to examine the concept of democracy in the light of modus vivendi theory.