You are here

Society & Politics 2/2006

(Társadalom & Politika 2006/2)

Foreword of the Editor

Security Policy
Attila Urbán: The Institutional Background and the Strategic Trends of the Fight Against Terrorism in Hungary
With entering the NATO and the EU, the military and political security and the potential for the articulation of national interests of Hungary were put on a higher level, but this step also increased the danger of being attacked by terrorist organizations confronting the Euro-Atlantic Alliance as a whole. The fight again terrorism is a complex of manifold task of partly international and partly national competence. The coordinated operation of the domestic institutional framework and the determination of the strategic priorities by the government are strongly affected by the concepts of preventing, addressing, operating effective antiterrorist defence systems, and providing fast remedy after a potentially realized threat (consequence management). As the fight against terrorism doesn’t serve only the security of the Republic of Hungary, but it also serves the defence of the democratic rule based on civil liberties, the governmental actions taking place must obey the principles of a state under the rule of law and their realization must fulfil the requirement of proportionality.

Political System
Edit Vigh: The Analysis of the Parties’ Internal Democracy on the Basis of the Statues of the Parliamentary Parties
In the present study, intra-party democratic operational mechanisms are analyzed. With the help of the available means, it is attempted to find out whether intra-party democracy exists at all. The basic assumption is that intra-party democracy, as a phenomenon, influences the entire political public life as well the democratic operation of the state. Interior conflicts can act as obstacles to the parties‘ efficient work but parallel to this, the existence of intra-party democratic brakes is one means of reducing the risk of developing oligarchy.
From a methodological point of view, the statue of the four parliamentary parties are analyzed through an idiosyncratically chosen system of criteria. At the end of the study, the author cannot formulate a straightforward conclusion concerning a precise assessment of the relative democracy in the four parliamentary parties. Partial answers can be given only if the viewpoints are examined separately. Nevertheless, there are innumerable external factors that influence the final result; therefore, presently, the degree of intra-party democracy cannot be determined in an exact way using scientific methodology.

Political Theory
Gabriella Cserpák: Political Responsibility, Political Duty
The concept of political responsibility is often used in everyday language but you can hardly find an adequate theoretical explanation in the specialized literature. The topic has several difficulties, because all the questions of responsibility are ideological and are tightly connected to the legal and the moral sphere. The first part discusses responsibility in general: it deals with the definition of responsibility and how political impeachment has developed as a social need. Both concepts presume consensus between people. It is important to define the kinds of spatial and temporal dimensions in which responsibility is formulated. Chapter 1 also deals with the norms and values giving basis for calling to account, as well as the relation between politics and ethics. Political responsibility and duty are discussed subsequently, and this starts with a historical outline. In this part, it is presented how the events and the means of political responsibility have become more and more extensive from the ancient times to our days. Then, political duty is discussed with a focus on contract theories. The roles of political responsibility and duty are also treated in relation to modern democracies and totalitarian dictatorships. Finally, the essay deals with the factors determining political responsibility. These are the following: the agent, subject, and method of responsibility and the person eligible to political impeachment. All four elements suggest various problems, but they are different from their legal counterparts. Political impeachment is less concrete and less defined. For instance, organizations similar to legal institutions have not been created in politics yet. The process of political impeachment is not so exactly prescribed, either. In modern democracies, the responsibility of citizens and persons in power becomes more and more emphatic. The institution of political responsibility and political impeachment is indispensable for the development of an operable society.

Political Philosophy
Antal Birkás: Luther and Calvin on State, Power and Politics. The Comparative Analysis of Luther’s and Calvin’s Political Philosophical Views
Protestantism had, and still has a great effect on politics and political philosophy. The essay attempts to present its major influences. The task of the paper is to analyze the ideas of Luther and Calvin on power and politics. Both of them have ideas on power and on the forms of government similar to the one of the other, but there are important differences as well. The paper has five main parts. The first one is to analyze the power and its origin: especially the roots of their ideas, which can be found in the Bible. The second one analyzes obedience and questions related to it. The third main part of the paper examines the state and the law (especially Luther and his “two kingdom” theory, and Calvin’s “general theory”), while the fourth one is about government and the different forms of it. In the last part one can read about the so-called “Christian leadership”.

Comparative Politics
László Balogh: The Main Features of the Party Systems of Albania, Bulgaria, and Poland in the Mirror of the Latest Elections
The most important field of the complex change in the social system of Central European countries in the second half of the 1980’s was the development of the party-system. The study presents the party-structures (and their changes) of Albania, Bulgaria, and Poland with comparative methods, primarily in the mirror of the latest parliamentary elections, together with the viewpoints of “political history” and “political culture” approaches. It deals with the causes of the unique characteristics, the instability, the fragmentation, and the changes of the party-systems, and with the nowadays so easily demonstrable effects of the differing and parallel periods of development in the political history of these countries.

Pros & Cons
Tibor Draskovics: Introduction of the Euro in 2010 – Fiction or Reality?
Péter Ákos Bod: Can the Euro Be Introduced in Hungary in 2010?

Gábor P. Kiss: If I Tell It in the Club...
István Benczes: High-Rate Euro? Cheap Policy! Arguments for Introducing the Euro

Interview
Mihály Bihari – professor of political sciences, university lecturer, president of the Constitutional Court

Review
Péter Király: Globalisation, Media, Politics. Change of Political Communication in the Globalized Era

Presentation
Political Science Association of Students of Debrecen (DEPOLIT)

Contents & Abstracts