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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]
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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

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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
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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
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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