Cleavages in Cross-Border Magyar Minority Politics, 1989-1998
Cleavages in Cross-Border Magyar Minority Politics, 1989-1998

Summary/Abstract: The study treats three major topics: 1. The issue of “existence on the other side” – a conceptual approach. The author gives an overview of political self-definition and scientific approaches, and presents the independent development of Hungarian communities living outside Hungary and the emergence of separate identity under forced coexistence. From the point of political history, between 1918 and 1940, and since 1989, Hungarian organizations functioned as independent political entities. 2. The paper also looks at cleavages within Magyar politics in specific countries (i.e., Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, and Yugoslavia) along ethnic, territorial, religious and linguistic divisions. 3. The treatise ends with an outline of three important topics, part of every popular debate on minority issues: a) the changing role of the intelligencia in the new situation; b) the relation of minority parties to the community they represent; c) Hungary’s relation to Hungarian communities living across state borders.

• Details
• Contents