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Réka Várnagy

SELECTION OF CANDIDATES FOR THE 2009 ELECTIONS FOR THE

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

The 2009 European Parliamentary elections took place in very unstable and turbulent political times in Hungary. European experience suggests that it encourages opposition and small parties to address protest voters and to motivate ”voting with the heart”. The paper seeks to examine what candidate selection strategies parties applied and wishes to point out the differences compared to the 2004 EP elections. The candidate selection process is analyzed along the dimensions of centralization and transparency while candidates are evaluated along professional and political requirements. As a result two different strategies emerge: while bigger parties seem to take into consideration the candidates’ party positions and European parliamentary experience preferring incumbents in the Hungarian delegation, smaller parties focus rather on national politics and select candidates to address Hungarian voters.

Keywords: EP elections, parties, candidate selection, MEP

László Kéri

ELECTION STRUGGLE – WITHOUT COMPETITION

 A framework for the political sociological analysis of the 2010 election campaign in Hungary

In comparison to the earlier ones, the 2010 election campaign in Hungary was a completely different one, partly because the identity of the possible winning party was acknowledged fairly in advance and for a long time. Since June 2009 at least it was clear after the results of the elections to the EP, when Fidesz had a sweeping victory. And later also, in the following months before the general elections, even the supporters of the rival parties had been counting with the inevitable victory of Fidesz. Due to these expectations in 2010, competition had become the missing link in the events of the campaign weeks. This kind of shortage had completely determined the development of the last six to tenweeks of the campaign. Instead of the contest, formerly grade B problems had become the key-issues: Such as, the inevitable two thirds majority of Fidesz in the next parliament, the riddle of the identity of the second party, or: who will be the leading force of the next opposition? Finally, there was the issue of the further political fate of the smaller parties, among them the question: which of them would be the most successful to reach the 5% threshold? Frankly, the above mentioned dilemmas were not too exiting to catch the political fantasy of the millions of voters.. This study tries to get a picture and to give an analysis of the most boring election campaign of the last twenty years in Hungary.

Keywords: campaign, elections, Hungarian party system, politics and media,political competition

József Dúró

EUROSCEPTICISM TODAY

The 2009 EP elections and the problems surrounding the ratifi  cation of the Lisbon Treaty have once again put critics of the European Union in the limelight. This paper focuses on the party-based euroscepticism. The phenomenon is so complex and diverse that it demands further grouping. The aim of this study is to give a comprehensive picture of today’s euroscepticism and to establish a new grouping for these parties. I have analysed parties which have got at least one European parliamentary mandate. Contrary to Taggart and Szczerbiak, I have found that these parties are much more for or against the political union or the Maastricht/Lisbon Treaty than for or against the EU membership itself. We can describe these parties in a much better way if we analyse euroscpetics’ relation vis-à-vis federalism (Maastricht Treaty or Lisbon Treaty) instead of EU membership because of the low number of hard eurosceptic parties. In addition I have researched the reason of euroscepticism such as why these parties are critical of the European Union. I have been able to pinpoint seven main types of reasons: sovereignty-based euroscepticism, democracy-based euroscepticism, leftwing (or leftist) euroscepticism, regional-based euroscepticism, neutrality-based euroscepticism, East European euroscepticism and agrarian-based euroscepticism.

Keywords: euroscepticism, parties, European Union, federalism, EP elections

László Gergely Szücs

THE STATUS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE THEORY OF DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY OF JÜRGEN HABERMAS

The article examines an important aspect of democratic states within the framework of the theory of deliberative democracy developed by Jürgen Habermas in the 1990s: his main idea concerns the problem of how the diversity of arguments and values appearing through democratic decision and the validation of universal human rights can both be addressed at the same time. With the help of Habermas’s work on practical reason, the article shows why the liberal idea of politics based merely on universal norms cannot be accepted from the point of view of discourse theory. Finally, on the basis of Faktizität und Geltung it reconstructs how the validity of classical liberal rights can be proven with the help of the theory of deliberative democracy.

Keywords: state based on the rule of law, deliberative democracy, liberalism,discourse, sovereignty of the people, human rights

Zoltán Gábor Szűcs

RUINS OF DAYS: A CASE STUDY OF DISCURSIVE POLITICAL SCIENCE ON “REPUBLIC DAY”

In the name of the cabinet, Cultural Minister András Bozóki introduced a new bill in 2005 that was designed to establish 1 February as a memorial day (Republic Day) for the 1st Act of 1946 (Law on the Republic). The bill was rejected by Parliament (actually it was revoked after the fi  rst reading) as a result of the joint disapproval of the minor governing party and the opposition. A closer discourse analysis of this case may shed l ight on both the nature of commemoration as a branch of political activity in general and on its role in the shaping of post-communist political culture in Hungary. The lesson we can draw from this kind of analysis of Republic Day is that the language of national history provides the conceptual framework of commemorative politics within the Hungarian political culture. Subsequently, a political intention to support a republican ideological engagement with a commemorative act needs to avoid the violation of the norms of the language of national history. Therefore, it should not surprise us that, according to the sources, the bill failed in a debate in which the argumentation of the opposition confronted the bill just with these norms.