Contemporary Hungarian Studies: Multidisciplinary European Perspectives

Transcription

1 Contemporary Hungarian Studies: Multidisciplinary European Perspectives Postgraduate Conference hosted by Central & East European Studies, University of Glasgow. Panel 1 - Abstracts Rafael Labanino (University of Bern):'Why Hungary? Institutional causes of democratic regression.' According to the Nations in Transit report of Freedom House it was Hungary where the quality of democracy decreased the most in the past 10 years in post- Communist Europe. Standing at 2.96, Hungary is not only the worst ranked democracy in the sample, but the worst ranked among those post- communist countries that joined the EU in 2004, and it is literally on the edge of being downgraded from a stable democracy to a transitional regime. This article seeks the causes for the democratic regression in Hungary. Although explanations about the social costs of the economic process and undemocratic traits of political culture) have their merits these approaches lead to idiosyncratic explanations at best. The analysis is made on a sample of those post- Communist EU member states that joined the EU in 2004 and were all rated stable democracies at the time. The article shows that there are other Central and Eastern European countries with more or at least equally controversial economic and social records than Hungary. Moreover, there were popular illiberal incumbents elsewhere. It is only Hungary, however, where the illiberal program fully unfolds. The article argues that the reason for this is institutional. It was the combination of different elements of the Hungarian constitutional setup that contributed to the most stable, the most polarized and least innovative political system of the region with a parliamentary majority and a very strong prime minister unconstrained by a directly elected president, a second chamber or any federal structure. That is, the majoritarian nature of the Hungarian constitutional was a necessary condition for the hollowing out of liberal democracy. The article emphasizes that the turn towards illiberalism was highly contingent on other factors and idiosyncratic events; nevertheless, it could not have been possible without the institutional framework. The model is situated in the literature on democratization, particularly in the debate on constitutional choice, parliamentarism and presidentialism, and the veto player theory. Helen Keighley (University of Sussex): 'Corruption in Hungary: Explaining transposition deficits in anti- bribery legislation.' Corruption in its various forms is estimated to cost the European Union around 120bn per year, as well as having other social and political implications. To counter this, European policymakers have attempted to introduce legislation to ensure that certain corrupt behaviours are criminalised across all member state and to try to homogenize minimum penalties for lawbreakers. Without uniform transposition of legislation in the EU, anti- corruption legislation is less likely to be effective due to the cross- border nature of these

2 crimes. However, EU communications and formal transposition reports which have been created to monitor the implementation of this legislation have shown that transposition levels vary across EU member states. Initial analysis of data from these transposition reports shows that EU- 15 member states have been more successful at transposing anti- corruption legislation than the 2004 accession countries. Using Hungary, Germany, Slovakia and the United Kingdom as case studies, I aim to examine why some countries transpose anti- corruption legislation quickly and effectively, whilst others fail to transpose required aspects of the legislation into state law at all. In this paper, corruption and anti- corruption legislation in Hungary will be discussed in a national and international context, and the effects of both EU legislation and international conventions will be considered. I will also discuss my ongoing research into transposition deficits in anti- bribery legislation in the EU and my upcoming fieldwork in Hungary. Balázs Brucker (University of Pécs): 'European Parliament criticism of Hungary's democratic values and Hungarian responses.' During the parliamentary term, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán and his conservative Fidesz party pushed through a series of constitutional changes and legislative amendments limiting democracy and basic rights in Hungary (limitations on the powers of the Constitutional Court, legislation on media freedom etc.), usually without consultation of affected stakeholders. Consequently, the state of the democracy in Hungary had been openly criticised not only by the left- wing opposition parties of the Hungarian parliament but also by the international community, especially by the European institutions (European Commission and European Parliament). The aim of my intervention is to analyse the political background of European Parliament criticism concerning Hungarian democratic values and the responses of the Hungarian government to these criticisms. The first part my presentation aims to give a short presentation about the changes in the Hungarian democratic institutions since The second part would analyse the European criticism of Hungarian democratic values, with particular regard to the position of the European Parliament. In this part of my intervention, I will analyse the rhetoric of the EP political groups, with particular regard to the attitude of the European People s Party, to which Orbán s Fidesz party belongs. The third part will discuss the responses given the Hungarian government to these criticisms, with particular regard to the different speeches of the Hungarian Prime Minister to the European Parliament.

3 Panel 2 - Abstracts Sandra Buljanovic Simonovic (University of Belgrade): 'Language learning and politics: The case of Hungarian in Belgrade.' In this paper I would like to present the Department for Hungarian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology of Belgrade University. The Hungarian Studies Department was founded in 1994, thus celebrating today its 20 th anniversary. The foundation of the Department was mainly the work of one man, Professor Dr. Sava Babic, author of many books on literary translation and Hungarian literature and a passionate translator of contemporary Hungarian authors. In Serbia, Hungarian language and literature are taught at the University of Novi Sad. The main difference between the two Hungarian Studies departments is that the one in Novi Sad educates mainly members of Hungarian national minority, while in Belgrade the Hungarian language is taught as a foreign language, so its students are mainly of Serbian nationality. One of the main worries concerning Hungarian department graduates was, What will they do after graduation? How will they put the knowledge of Hungarian language to use? This paper tries to answers the questions: What is the situation today, is there work for Hungarian language graduates in Serbia? Special emphasis will be given to the change that occurred with the National Assembly of Hungary which approved the amendment of Act LV of 1993 on Hungarian citizenship and introduced a simplified naturalisation procedure, making thousands of Serbs study Hungarian language in order to get Hungarian citizenship, and providing a number of Hungarian language graduates with work, either as teachers or translators. This paper will present how a political act in Hungary directly influenced language learning and teaching in Serbia. Beatrix Tölgyesi (University of Glasgow): 'The only Hungarian writer who is Lithuanian: A debate on urban vs. rural literature.' The paper examines the debate between two prominent figures of Hungarian literature, Frigyes Karinthy and Áron Tamási, from 1930, which has been one of the first manifestations of the rural vs. urban ( népies vs. urbánus ) controversy. This conflict between authors of different social origin and, consquently, often also political views has been present in Hungarian culture, society and politics up until now, therefore it is worth examining the roots of this phenomenon. The problem also involves the following questions: what criteria decide the affiliation of authors and their literary works to national literatures? Language, origin, citizenship, theme of writings? Is there national literature at all and what are its characteristics? What is the relation of minority and mother country literature? The debate also sheds light on how Hungarian literature was coping with the trauma of Trianon and how it influenced its development.

4 Dr. Kata Bohus (University of Göttingen): 'Anne and Éva two diaries, two memories.' My paper investigates the history of the publication of two diaries in Communist and post- Communist Hungary: the world- famous diary of Anne Frank and the much less- known Hungarian Anne Frank, Éva Heyman. The stories of the two young girls are remarkably similar; however, the publication histories of their diaries are not. While Anne Frank s diary was published several times in Communist and post- Communist Hungary, Éva s only appeared twice: in 1948 and The paper will examine these publication histories, focusing on the memory politics of the Hungarian Communist regime and of the later democratic governments. Anne Frank s diary, paired with her father s endeavors to connect his daughter s memory to universal human rights issues, was more compatible with the ideologically loaded Communist interpretation of the Second World War. Moreover, the wide international acclaim of Anne Frank s diary made it universal yet politically inconsequential to the narrative of Hungarian history. Éva s writing, by contrast, highlights very concrete, local problems that tear into the very centre of Hungarian collective memory. Her diary addresses such taboos as the relationship between Hungarians and other minorities in Transylvania, and Hungarian attitudes towards the annihilation of Hungarian Jewry during the war. These issues remained for the country s post- Communist governments as well. Hungary s integration into the European Union means that the Hungarian understanding of the Holocaust as an event of global significance meshes well with Western interpretations, while the local meaning of the Holocaust in Hungary remains a contested topic. This contradiction is visible from the two diaries publication histories.

5 Panel 3 - Abstracts Ágnes Vass (Institute for Minority Studies, Centre for Social Sciences, HAS): 'From ethnizenship to diasporisation(?): The effects of preferential naturalisation within members of ethnic Hungarians living abroad.' The question how to define the relation towards ethnic Hungarians living in neighbouring countries plays an important role in the domestic political sphere in Hungary. After the unsuccessful referendum about whether Hungary should offer for these kin- minorities Hungarian citizenship or not, the question became a second order issue for the left governments and the relations with ethnic Hungarian communities were based on less nationalistic principles. After regaining control of the government in 2010, Fidesz passed the amendment of the citizenship law and introduced preferential naturalisation removing all residency requirements from among the pre- conditions of obtaining a Hungarian citizenship for Hungarians living abroad. With this decision, Fidesz has changed the whole character of the relations with these communities and also has changed the status of these minorities easing up access to Hungarian citizenship they can become diaspora communities, because now they are in the same position with those Hungarians, who emigrated from the country by their own will. What is more, status of Hungary is also changing it becomes a country whose own citizens are living on the territory of neighbouring countries. This presentation reviews the development of the relations between Hungary (as kin- state) and ethnic Hungarian communities in neighbouring countries and also analyses the effects of the preferential naturalisation. In the second part of this research we analyse this question form a qualitative perspective and through the focus group discussions conducted in neighbouring countries we give an overview about the real results of the preferential naturalisation from the perspective of these minority communities. Joanna Mellis (University of Florida): 'Borrowing Communist symbols of power? Building Hungarian prowess through sport then and today.' While under Communist rule from , Hungarian leaders believed that success on the international sport stage proved the victory of communism over capitalism abroad and at home. During this time the Communist government directly funded and organized all aspects of Hungarian sport life. Hungarian athletes achieved enormous international success as a result of the state s patronage of sport, such as when the Olympic team placed third and fourth in the total medal count at the 1952 and 1956 Olympic Games respectively. By comparing the ways in which the Communist government and current Fidesz leaders approach elite sport, my paper addresses how the Hungarian state s recent focus on rebuilding the nation through football success is neither entirely new nor old, but somewhere in between. As a staunchly anti- Communist party, Fidesz eschews every possible connection to the pre system. Yet Fidesz s attempts to boost Hungary s football prowess, such as by using billions of taxpayers' money to bolster his favorite club teams' success, clearly mimic the Communists broader financial and institutional support of elite sport in the previous political system. Some differences do exist, however, such as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's specific focus on football, and not on more successful Hungarian sports like swimming and

6 water polo. By using oral histories, archival documents and contemporary news reports to analyze these dynamics, my paper contributes to the larger debate on the lasting and complex impact of Communist cultural legacies in post- socialist Eastern Europe.