Die "unvollendete Revolution": Sozialistische Überreste in der ungarischen Verfassungsordnung
The "Unfinished Revolution": Socialist Vestiges in Hungary's Constitution

Summary/Abstract: Abstract: In the course of Hungary's negotiated transition, no new constitution was enacted. Instead, the existing document was continually amended. As a result, a con-siderable number of socialist elements survived in the present text. In most cases, these surviving vestiges are merely symbolic or stylistic because their potential to disrupt the new order is neutralised by pertinent legislation. This is the case with clauses such as the supremacy of Parliament or the role of the public prosecution service. Other surviving vestiges are more dangerous, such as the numerous social rights in their so-cialist wording. In 2004, the Constitutional Court ruled that a person's right to health could be used to empower the state to coerce that person to a healthy behaviour irre-spective of that person's will, thus curtailing that person's freedom of action. This case demonstrates the danger to freedom posed by keeping socialist-style social rights in the constitution, especially in a political culture still shaped by a paternalist state.

• Details
• Contents