A bal- és jobboldal az ezredfordulón
The Left and the Right at the Turn of the Millennium

Summary/Abstract: The paper is in quest of an answer to the question whether the confrontation of the Left and Right is still capable of reflecting the significant transformations of the recent years and decades - with special regard to the terrorist attack against the United States on 11 September 2001. In order to find an answer to this question the author at first presents some initial theses, and subsequently he argues that certain ‘post-modern’ phenomena may bring about the decrease of the explanatory force of the pair of categories of Left and Right. In this respect the author stresses that the alternatives of systems are being pushed into the background, he emphasizes the process of globalisation, and the specific conflicts of the new East and Central European democracies that do not follow the logic of Left and Right. At the same time he states that the Left and Right constitute a ‘tenacious’ pair of categories, which would not disappear in the 21st century either, only its border areas of analysis would undergo changes. The author analyses separately the consequences of the terrorist attack on the United States on 11 September 2001, and in this context he lists eight such old and new problems that place the dimension of Left and Right into a new light. Finally, the author turns to Hungary and argues that the scheme of Left and Right has lost a great deal of its significance the primary causes of which are that the party system is markedly bipolar, the international economic sphere of mobility has become more limited, and there are contradictions deriving from the specific heritage and current role of the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP).

• Details
• Contents