Rendszerváltás és nemzeti tematika
System Change and The National Theme

Summary/Abstract: Every time there was a major political change in Hungary in the 20th century, national issues (i.e., issues of national belonging) appeared on the public agenda; the last time they did so was after the political transformation in 1989–1990. This study seeks to answer the questions how national issues were constructed after the political transformation, what their function was in the competition among the political parties, and what role they played when creating the major political cleavages. It analyzes the reasons why national issues have become a major component in the creation of political selfdefinitions. Such reasons include the failure to solve national problems and to define the concept of the nation and the citizenry, the difficulty to find one’s way in a radically transformed political and social structure, the potential of national issues to create symbolic communities, as well as the deficiencies of a democractic civic culture.

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