Napok romjai: diszkurzív politikatudományi esettanulmány a „Köztársaság napjáról”
Ruins of a Day: A Case Study of Discursive Political Science on “Republic Day”

Summary/Abstract: In the name of the cabinet, Cultural Minister András Bozóki introduced a new bill in 2005 that was designed to establish 1 February as a memorial day (Republic Day) for the 1st Act of 1946 (Law on the Republic). The bill was rejected by Parliament (actually it was revoked after the first reading) as a result of the joint disapproval of the minor governing party and the opposition. A closer discourse analysis of this case may shed light on both the nature of commemoration as a branch of political activity in general and on its role in the shaping of post-communist political culture in Hungary. The lesson we can draw from this kind of analysis of Republic Day is that the language of national history provides the conceptual framework of commemorative politics within the Hungarian political culture. Subsequently, a political intention to support a republican ideological engagement with a commemorative act needs to avoid the violation of the norms of the language of national history. Therefore, it should not surprise us that, according to the sources, the bill failed in a debate in which the argumentation of the opposition confronted the bill just with these norms.

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