Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-pdxrj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-09T23:29:55.739Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Adopting the European Model versus National Egoism: The Task of Surpassing Political Hysteria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2012

Iván Zoltán Dénes
Iván Zoltán Dénes
Affiliation:
Budapest, Beregszász út 62, H-1112, Hungary. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Analysing the images of the self and the enemy of the two main kinds of political language in the post-communist countries of East Central European, this Hungarian case study shows the shift from personal liberty to social protection, from liberal democracy to a mixture of oligarchic and ochlocratic phenomena, from constitutional revolution to a search for forging collective identity, from individual universal human-rights discourse to collectivist, including ethnicist, public speech, and from establishing the constitutional bases of the new democratic political system to different political hysterias. Its ultimate question is how to surpass political hysteria through research into the ways and means of processing collective traumas.

Type
Focus: European Civil Wars
Information
European Review , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , 04 September 2012 , pp. 514 - 525
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes and References

1. I. Bibó (1991) Die deutsche Hysterie. Ursachen und Geschichte. Translated by H.H. Paetzke (Frankfurt: Insel Verlag); Bibó, I. (1993) Misére des petits Etats d'Europe de l'Est. Translated by G. Kassai (Paris: Albin Michel), pp. 7–125, 127–201, 205–378, 381–424; I. Bibó (1994) Miseria dei piccoli Stati dell'Europa orientale. Trans. A. Nuzzo (Bologna: Il Mulino); I. Bibó (1997) Isteria tedesca, paura francese, insicurezza italiana. Psicologia di tre nazioni da Napoleone a Hitler. Trans. M. Mihályi (Bologna: Il Mulino); I. Bibó (2004) Il problema storico dell'indipendenza ungherese. Trans. F. Argentieri, S. Bottoni, and G. Spadoni (Venice: Marsilio).Google Scholar
2.Bibó, I. (1993) Misére des petits Etats d'Europe de l'Est. Translated by G. Kassai (Paris: Albin Michel), pp. 7–378; I.Z. Dénes (Ed.) (2006) Liberty and the Search for Identity. Liberal Nationalisms and the Legacy of Empires (Budapest, New York: Central European University Press), pp. 1–17, 21–88, 91–307, 311–501; B. Trencsényi and M. Kopeček (Ed.) (2006–2007) Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945). Texts and Commentaries (Budapest, New York: Central European University Press), 1, pp. 57–351; 2, pp. 4–498.Google Scholar
3.Leopold, L. (1917) Elmélet nélkül [Without theory] (Budapest: Benkő Gyula könyvkereskedése), pp. 91–133.Google Scholar
4. I am grateful to my learned friend and colleague Charles Kecskeméti (Antony, France) for his reflections and critical comments on the first version of this paper. See also M. Halbwachs (1952) Les cadres sociaux de la mémoire (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France); P. Nora (Ed.) (1984–1995) Les lieux de mémoire (Paris: Gallimard), 7 volumes; M. Szabó (2003) Az újkonzervativizmus és a jobboldali radikalizmus története (1867–1918) [The history of neo-conservativism and right wing radicalism (1867–1918)] (Budapest: Új Mandátum Kiadó); M. Szabó (2006) The liberalism of the Hungarian nobility, 1825–1910. In: I.Z. Dénes (Ed.) Liberty and the Search for Identity. Liberal Nationalisms and the Legacy of Empires (Budapest, New York: Central European University Press), 197–237; B. Trencsényi (2008) Vesztes csapaton ne változtass! [Do not change a losing army]. Review of Ezzé lett magyar hazátok [What has become of your Hungarian homeland] by János Gyurgyák. 2000, no. 4: 3–9; Trencsényi, B. (2008) ‘Jön a tatár!’ A nemzeti antiliberalizmusok kihívása Kelet-Közép-Európában. [‘Tartar is coming!’. The national anti-liberal challenges in East central Europe]. In: I.Z. Dénes, Szabadság-közösség. Programok és értelmezések [Freedom – community. Programs and interpretations] (Budapest: Argumentum Kiadó – Bibó István Szellemi Műhely), pp. 241–269. I.Z. Dénes (2011) Az ‘illúzió’ realitása. Kollektív identitásprogramok [The reality of ‘illusion’. Collective identity-programmes] (Budapest: Argumentum Kiadó - Bibó István Szellemi Mühely); B. Trencsényi (2011) The Politics of National Character; A Study in Interwar East European Thought (Oxford: Routledge).Google Scholar
5.Bibó, I. (1993) Misére des petits Etats d'Europe de l'Est. Translated by G. Kassai (Paris: Albin Michel), pp. 205–378.Google Scholar
6.Bibó, I. (1993) Misére des petits Etats d'Europe de l'Est. Translated by G. Kassai (Paris: Albin Michel), pp. 9–125.Google Scholar
7.Tamir, Y. (1993) Liberal Nationalism (Princeton: Princeton University Press); J. Kis (1996) Beyond the nation state. Social Research, 1, pp. 191–245.Google Scholar
8. For the precedents, see: Walicki, A. (1989) The Slavophile Controversy: History of a Conservative Utopia in Nineteenth-Century Russian Thought (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press); J. Jedlicki (1999) A Suburb of Europe. Nineteenth-Century Polish Approaches to Western Civilization (Budapest: Central European University Press); I.Z. Dénes (2001) Európai mintakövetés-nemzeti öncélúság. Értékvilág és identitáskeresés a 19-20. századi Magyarországon [Adoption of European patterns versus national self-centeredness. Value systems and searching for identity in 19th- and 20th-century Hungary] (Budapest: Új Mandátum); I.Z. Dénes (Ed.) (2006) Liberty and the Search for Identity. Liberal Nationalisms and the Legacy of Empires (Budapest, New York: Central European University Press), pp. 1–17, 155–271, 367–499; B. Trencsényi and M. Kopeček (Ed.) (2006–2007) Discourses of Collective Identity in Central and Southeast Europe (1770–1945). Texts and Commentaries (Budapest, New York: Central European University Press); B. Trencsényi (2007) A politika nyelvei. Eszmetörténeti tanulmányok [Political languages. Essays in the history of ideas] (Budapest: Argumentum Kiadó – Bibó István Szellemi Műhely), 1, pp. 197–351; 2, pp. 307–498; I.Z. Dénes (2011) Az ‘illúzió’ realitása. Kollektív identitásprogramok [The Reality of ‘Illusion’. Collective Identity-Programmes] (Budapest: Argumentum Kiadó - Bibó István Szellemi Mühely); B. Trencsényi (2011) The Politics of National Character; A Study in Interwar East European Thought (Oxford: Routledge).Google Scholar
9.Bibó, I. (1993) Misére des petits Etats d'Europe de l'Est. Translated by G. Kassai (Paris: Albin Michel) ; M. Szabó (2006) The liberalism of the Hungarian nobility, 1825–1910. In: I.Z. Dénes (Ed.) Liberty and the Search for Identity. Liberal Nationalisms and the Legacy of Empires (Budapest, New York: Central European University Press), pp. 197–237; I.Z. Dénes (2009) Conservative Ideology in the Making (Budapest; New York: Central European Press).Google Scholar
10.Madeuf, Cf. B. and Sindzingre, A. (2007) Growth, democracy and globalisation: assessing the links. Paper presented at the conference: La démocratie a l’ épreuve des mutations économiques et sociales de l’ Europe contemporaine, Villa Finaly, Florence, June 25–26, 2007. I am indebted to Alice Sindzingre (CNRS, Paris) for providing me a copy of this lecture.Google Scholar
11. See independent analyses of the post-September 17 situation: J. Kis (2006) Pengeélen [On the edge]. Èlet és Irodalom, 6 October; J. Kis (2006) Pengeélen 2 [On the edge 2]. Élet és Irodalom, 3 November; J. Kis (2006) Pengeélen 3 [On the edge 3]. Népszabadság, 7 December; Kis, J. (2008) Az összetorlódott idő [Condensed time]. In: I.Z. Dénes (Ed.) Szabadság-közösség. Programok és értelmezések [Freedom – community. Programs and interpretations] (Budapest: Argumentum Kiadó – Bibó István Szellemi Műhely), pp. 449–469. Cf. his explanation of the theoretical problem: J. Kis (2008) Politics as a Moral Problem (Budapest: Central European University Press).Google Scholar
12.Bibó, I. (1991) Democracy, Revolution, Self-Determination. Selected Writings. Ed. K. Nagy. Trans. A. Boros-Kazai (Highland Lakes, NJ: Atlantic Research and Publications) ; I. Bibó (1993) Misére des petits Etats d'Europe de l'Est. Trans. G. Kassai (Paris: Albin Michel), pp. 7–125, 127–201, 205–378, 381–424; I. Bibó (1994) Miseria dei piccoli Stati dell'Europa orientale. Trans. A. Nuzzo (Bologna: Il Mulino); I. Bibó (1997) Isteria tedesca, paura francese, insicurezza italiana. Psicologia di tre nazioni da Napoleone a Hitler. Trans. M. Mihályi (Bologna: Il Mulino); I. Bibó (2004) Il problema storico dell'indipendenza ungherese. Trans. F. Argentieri, S. Bottoni and G. Spadoni (Venice: Marsilio). See also: I. Balog (2004) Politikai hisztériák Közép- és Kelet-Európában. Bibó István fasizmusról, nacionalizmusról, antiszemitizmusról [Political hysterias in Central and Eastern Europe. István Bibó on fascism, nationalism, anti-Semitism] (Budapest: Argumentum Kiadó – Bibó István Szellemi Műhely); I. Balog (2007) A magyar hisztéria. [The Hungarian Hystery]. Élet és Irodalom [Life and Literature], January 5, p. 14; J. Kis (2008) Az összetorlódott idő/Condensed time/. In: I.Z. Dénes (Ed.) Szabadság-közösség. Programok és értelmezések [Freedom – community. Programs and interpretations] (Budapest: Argumentum Kiadó – Bibó István Szellemi Műhely), pp. 285–310. I.Z. Dénes (2011) Az ‘illúzió’ realitása. Kollektív identitásprogramok [The Reality of ‘Illusion’. Collective Identity-Programmes] (Budapest: Argumentum Kiadó - Bibó István Szellemi Mühely); B. Trencsényi (2011) The Politics of National Character: A Study in Interwar East European Thought (Oxford: Routledge).Google Scholar
13.Bibó, I. (1976) The Paralysis of International Institutions and the Remedies. A Study of Self-Determination, Concord among the Major Powers and Political Arbitration (Hassocks, Sussex: The Harvester Press); J. Kis (2003) Constitutional Democracy (Budapest: Central European University Press).Google Scholar