The Brigade of the Great Hungarian Plain The crimes of the most notorious military detachment during the wave of paramilitary violence called the Hungarian White Terror in 1919–1921, and the further life of a radical right-wing paramilitary commander

In 1919–1920s, paramilitary violence was an almost natural phenomenon in Hungary, like in many other countries of Central Europe. After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire the new right-wing government, establishing its power with the help of the Entente powers, could difficulty rule the quasi anarchistic conditions. In 1919–1921, Hungary was terrorized by irregular military formations that were formally part of the National Army, and radical right-wing soldiers committed serious crimes frequently by anti-Semitic motivations. One of the most notorious military detachment was organised by young first lieutenant of the Air Force Iván Héjjas, who, with the help of his armed militiamen, abusing the anarchistic conditions due to civil war, build up his own quasi private state in the town of Kecskemét and in its neighbourhood, the Great Hungarian Plain. His rule lasted for two years, his subordinates murdered and/or robbed hundreds of people, mainly of Jewish origin, but later they were given amnesty. Héjjas later became an influential radical right-wing politician of the Hungarian political scene in the period between the two world wars. The present research article makes an attempt to reconstruct the wave of paramilitary violence of Iván Héjjas’s detachment, and also examines of the further life of a used-to-be radical right-wing paramilitary commander and politician who gradually became member of the Hungarian political elite, despite his notorious past.

A politikai filozófia a világjárványról

Összefoglaló. Ez a filozófiai esszé arra tesz kísérletet, hogy megpróbálja nyomon követni a világjárvány kibontakozását, a változatos védelmi stratégiákat, valamint a mégiscsak bekövetkező tragédiákat a politikai filozófia perspektívájából. Mégpedig valós időben. Az esszé abból a hipotézisből indul ki, hogy az emberiséget váratlanul érte ugyan a járvány, mégis igen gyorsan tudott reagálni (lásd az oltóanyag előállításának gyorsaságát), az egyes emberek azonban nem tudtak kilépni saját természetük korlátai közül. Ennek megfelelően a hatalom ismét elkövette a szokásos hibákat, a lázadók lázadtak, és a politika továbbra is a konfliktusok kezelésének művészete maradt. A politikával foglalkozóknak azonban kincsesbánya ez a korszak a politika természetének elemzéséhez. Summary. This paper, written in the genre of the literary essay, tries to keep track of the birth and development of the pandemic, the various defence strategies and the tragedies that took place anyhow, from the perspective of the discipline of political philosophy. Now political philosophy is not characteristically ready to react promptly to the events of the day. It has got a long term perspective, and therefore has no intention to keep an eye on the headlines of the online news portals. It has got long term debits, which cannot be easily paid back in cash. And yet the claim of the paper is that in fact we are confronted by a state of affairs when political philosophy is obliged to take note of contemporary events. And it has to try to respond to those events almost “real time” or directly. We are aware of 4 million dead, by now, which is an unacceptable number. To tackle states of emergency parliaments are usually ready to offer exceptional measures for government action, even in parliamentary democracies. Yet politicians do not necessarily want to take on board the struggle with the virus – they can easily drop it out from the issues of the day –, claiming that public health should not be politicized. Yet by leaving the stage to let professional experts make the decisions, they give up their chance to unite the camp. Statesmen can only unite their camp behind them, if they make use of the window of opportunity opened by an emergency situation, and if they are able to make use of the phobias and anxieties of everyday people, in the fashionable populist, plebeian manner. The essay analyses two basic relationships influenced by the pandemic. One is claimed to be the intergovernmental, or global scene. Here, the great and developing powers are competing with each other, through the still mostly acceptable international norms of taking advantage of inequality. The other is the inner political scene, where there is a growing distrust between the authorities and the ordinary people, fuelled by restrictions, fake news, and forms either of controlling society by illegal means, or of influencing leaders by indirect means. The last part of the essay presents three major aspects from where one can analyse the happenings: a social, a communicational and an economic perspective on its effects. The essay finishes with some cautionary, sceptical notes on human nature, in order to keep vigilance in emergency situations on the loss of balance, either internal or external, to avoid the major dangers.

Election preferences of the inhabitants of West Pomerania in local elections in the Third Republic of Poland

Western Pomerania was said to be called as a stronghold of the left, for the Democratic Left Alliance both in the 1990s and at the beginning of the 21st century achieved some of the best results in the country. Only after the parliamentary and presidential elections in 2005 and the local government elections in 2006, the electoral preferences changed towards the center of the political scene. The Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland turned out to be the change, Law and Justice to a lesser extent. The article presents a political analysis of the voting preferences of the inhabitants of West Pomerania in the local government elections with regard to the three mentioned parties. The aim of the research was to analyze the direction in which the electorate goes. It was checked whether the SLD was permanently eliminated and how strong the dominance of the PO was. Furthermore it was examined whether PiS is a real threat to the PO RP and whether the SLD has a chance to regain its lost position. It seems that regardless of the attempts made, the position of the SLD after the 2006 elections is stable and there are no indications that the Alliance could dominate the analyzed region again. However, in spite of the fact that since 2006 the PO enjoys high support, since 2014 PiS has been achieving better and better results, depriving the PO RP hegemon in its position in 2006–2014.

The political engagement of women in post-conflict Kosovo

The Republic of Kosovo was created several years after the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Its problems were visible during Josip Broz Tito’s presidency. Over the last ten years Kosovo has had two female presidents. The question is, what is the position of women on the Kosovan political scene? This phenomenon is particularly significant from the point of view of the post-conflict reconstruction of the state. The aim of this article is to analyse the evolution of the role of Kosovo Albanian women in the politics of Kosovo at the central level. For this reason, the article includes women involved in the armed conflict in Kosovo, especially in the activities of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, alb. Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës, UÇK). The author also presents the role of women in the Kosovan political arena since 1999, with particular emphasis on changes that took place after the declaration of independence of Kosovo. Furthermore, the author examines the profiles of selected female politicians. The article is based on an analysis of primary and secondary sources, the comparative and historical method, and an analysis of statistical data.

Ewolucja systemu partyjnego i sceny politycznej w Bułgarii w latach 1990-2017 – od dwublokowości do wielopartyjności

This article concerns the evolution of the party system and the political scene of Bulgaria after the system transformations. The foundations of this analysis are the results of the elections to the National Assembly in the years 1990-2017. In order to identify the type of the party system, official election results and the effective number of parties index (ENP) were used. This index was used to characterise the party system after 2001. Some conditions from communism time had an influence on the shape and kind of how the Bulgarian party system and political scene evolved after system transformation. Between 1990-2001 in Bulgaria, a two-block or two and a half-block party system existed. From 2001 it evolves in the direction of a multiparty system.

Political leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in selected analytical categories

The aim of the article is to define the political leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and present the attributes and factors which primarily influenced the effectiveness of his leadership in the Turkish society. Erdoğan has a strong and unquestioned position in his own party, as well as on the Turkish political scene. For a significant part of the society, he is an irreplaceable person and the best leader in the history of the country. Factors which have a major influence on his success are of social, economic and cultural nature. He is a leader, who can easily turn a crisis to his own advantage and convince his followers to support his own arguments. Erdoğan’s activities, which were firmly focused on economic issues, health care reforms and Turkey’s integration with the European Union, enabled him to gain the support of even this part of the society whose values are distant from the ones he accepts. At the same time, he represents a confrontational attitude towards political opponents and often expresses his reluctance towards them.

Leading the Way, but Also Following the Trend: The Slovak National Party

Despite spells outside parliament, with its blend of nationalist and populist appeals the Slovak National Party (SNS) has been a prominent fixture on Slovakia’s political scene for three decades. Unlike some of the newer parties in Slovakia and across the region, partly as a product of the point of its (re-)creation, SNS has a comparable organizational density to most established parties in the country and has invested in party branches and recruiting members. Although ordinary members exercised some power and influence during the fissiparous era of the early 2000s, SNS has been notable for the role played by its leader in decision-making and steering the party. Each leader placed their stamp on the projection, pitch and functioning of the party, both as a decision-making organization and an electoral vehicle. Ordinary members have been largely—but not exclusively—relegated to the role of cheerleaders and campaigners for the party’s tribunes; a situation which has not changed significantly in the era of social media. The pre-eminent position of the leader and the limited options for “voice” has led unsuccessful contenders for top posts and their supporters to opt instead for “exit.” Despite having some of the traits of the mass party and having engaged in some of the activities common for mass parties, especially in the earlier years of its existence, in more recent times in particular, SNS falls short of the mass party model both in aspiration and reality.

Between Anglophone and Francophone Cameroon

In 2016, the reputation for stability of the Republic of Cameroon, a state made up of Francophones that constitute the majority (three quarters of the population of 25000000) and Anglophones that constitute a minority abruptly came an end when Anglophone secessionists took up arms to fight for the independence of the former Southern Cameroons. It was no surprise to keen observers of the Cameroon political scene in the last decades, If the government of the day is determined to give what it will take to keep the country united, the secessionists are equally convinced of the rectitude of their cause which they base on the principle of self-determination in international law, contesting the legality of the UN-organised plebiscite of!961 that led to the Reunification of the country. This paper assesses the legality of the claims of the protagonists for better information of all the stakeholders in the ongoing conflict..

The reactionary and the radical: A comparative analysis of mass conservative mobilisation in Australia and New Zealand during the Great Depression

<p>The Great Depression witnessed an unparalleled explosion of mass conservative mobilisation across Australia and New Zealand. Large populist movements sprang into being virtually overnight and amassed a collective membership numbering in the hundreds of thousands. At the height of their influence they posed a direct challenge to the electoral base of mainstream conservative parties. They soon faded away from the political scene and, indeed, from the collective memory of Australian and New Zealand society. This thesis is concerned with four of these movements: the Citizens’ League of South Australia, the Australian Citizens’ League of Victoria, the All for Australia League of New South Wales, and the New Zealand Legion. The former three arose in Australia in 1931, whilst the latter appeared in New Zealand in 1933. These movements combined a populist and idealist rhetorical and organisational style with standard conservative social and economic ideas. They simultaneously sought new and radical alternatives to party politics and class conflict whilst expressing nostalgia for an illusory nineteenth century colonial society epitomised by classlessness, limited government, independent politicians, and the self-sufficient pioneer. This thesis suggests that, in order to truly understand these movements, this inherent contradiction between looking forwards and backwards for political inspiration must be embraced rather than ironed out in favour of narrative consistency. It argues that the citizens’ movements were a contradictory blend of the reactionary and the radical, and that their history, from their origins to their rapid demise, can be best interpreted through the lens of this thematic contradiction.</p>