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Evaluation of the 2009 European Parliament Elections in Hungary

Attila Antal, p. 5–31

Abstract: The 2009 elections for the European Union have been special for several reasons: on the one hand the world has been struggling with an economic crisis; on the other hand the Hungarian government has been in crisis since 2006. As for the second one, the opposition “converted” the elections to a referendum held on the recent work of the government. The predictions of the public opinion polls proved to be adequate: after sending nine representatives fi ve years ago , the Socialist Party this year could only get four places. Nevertheless the predictions of the opinion polls proved to be unpunctual, because only one-two places were expected to be taken by the far right party Jobbik. It succeeded in getting even three places though. (Only 31,36 % of the citizens voted, which also ‘deformed’ somewhat the situation.) The biggest opposition party Fidesz (56,36 %) received fourteen mandates, which could have been awaited because of the weakness of the government. The question remains though, how can Fidesz handle the far right voters, because Jobbik doesn’t want to belong to a big right-wing conglomerate. The tendencies mentioned above predict the rearrangement of the current Hungarian party system, namely the potential appearance of the far right powers. Although the Socialist party sustained a defeat at the elections and parallel to this the right wing could improve their strength, the elections did not turn to a domestic referendum : Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai was not forced to resign, moreover the minority governing Socialist fraction approved (with the votes of their former coalition partner) the laws most important for handling the crises after the defeat.

Keywords: European elections, Hungary, political parties, Fidesz, Jobbik, Hungarian party system

Party-centrism and gender equality: a study of European elections in Slovenia

Danica Fink-Hafner, Tomaž Deželan, Simona Topolinjak, p. 32–54

Abstract: In 2004 female candidates won a relatively large proportion of Slovenian MEP seats due to effective institutional engineering and despite the: a) persistent dominating political culture (unfavourable to women in politics); b) predominant party-centric electoral system and election campaign; and c) further marginalisation of female candidates compared to male candidates in the printed media during the party-centric election campaign. Research fi ndings support the thesis found in political party literature asserting political parties adapt to new electoral rules without radically changing how they function and without them struggling to change the dominant political culture and media reporting that is unfriendly to gender equality.

Keywords: gender representation, institutional engineering, political parties, election campaign, mass media, political culture, European elections, Slovenia

When nation building is at odds with economic reform and EU membership

Lars Johannsen and Karin Hilmer Pedersen, p. 55–77

Abstract: While small state logic and the imperative of a return to Europe by and large explain why the stringent EU requirements were adopted by the candidate countries prior to membership it, is not suffi cient to explain why they did so to varying degree and at different speeds. Through a comparative analysis of four countries, it is argued that different choices in nation-building affected the countries’ capacity to handle large-scale reforms resulting, in a ‘go-go’ process in the Czech Republic and Estonia and a ‘stop-go’ process in Slovakia and Latvia. Consequently, at present, as membership of the European Union is well underway, Slovakia and Latvia have already had their nation building discussions. The pending question is what the political consequences will be in the Czech Republic and Estonia if and when nation building fi nds its way back to the political arena.

Keywords: economic reform, EU, nation building, comparative method, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia

DISCUSSION

Ladislav Cabada: Political culture and its types in the post-Yugoslav Area

Melinda Kovács: The Violence of Others: ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ Press Discourses

BOOK REVIEWS

David Behenský: Post-War Reconstruction and Peace-Building: Roles and Strategies of International Non-Governmental Organisations

Helena Hricová: Democratization and De-democratization in Europe? Austria, Britain, Italy, and the Czech Republic – A Comparison