Létezik-e globális posztszocialista állapot?
Is There a Global Postsocialist Condition?

Summary/Abstract: This paper argues for a relational perspective in the social sciences that sees the formerSecond World as connected to both the former First and Third Worlds. Rather than themono-directionality, especially between the First and Second Worlds, assumed by manymodernisation and globalisation approaches, this article suggests that these „worlds”have been mutually constitutive. Making globalisation, postcolonial and postsocialiststudies speak to each other, the article places postsocialism in a new global context. Relationalityhas consequences not only for how we see the ontology but also the politicalpossibilities of the post-socialist global. As such, this article develops a constructive critiqueof Nancy Fraser’s concept of the postsocialist condition by demonstrating how classand identity politics have been strategically fused in the region during and after statesocialism, relying primarily on research in Hungary. Empirically, the article argues that theinteraction of state socialist and postsocialist histories with new Western projects of thepolitics of recognition – such as cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism, global civil society,and postnationalism – had the effect of impoverishing national public discourses, whichled to undemocratic results in Eastern Europe, and created a favourable atmosphere forthe extreme right wing.

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