The Roundtable Talks of 1989
The Genesis of Hungarian Democracy
Editor András Bozóki, Associate Professor in
Political Science,
Central European University and Eötvös Loránd University,
Budapest
In Hungary the "velvet revolution" of
1989 was prepared, or rather prompted, by a series of
negotiations conducted between representatives of the
democratic opposition, the ruling Communist party, and
a political group called the "third side" comprising
organizations close to the Communist regime. As a result
of these talks, referred to as the historic "Roundtable
Talks", free elections were held in Hungary in 1990,
marking the end of the oppressive Communist regime and
the beginning of a new epoch in the country's history.
Based on primary sources recently published in Hungarian
in eight volumes - edited by András Bozóki,
Márta Elbert, Melinda Kalmár, Béla
Révész, Erzsébet Ripp and Zoltán
Ripp - this book tells the history of the Roundtable
Talks. The contributors prove that in Hungary - as opposed
to some other Central European countries - the Roundtable
Talks amounted to much more than just a sideshow and
in fact they constituted the hub of the revolutionary
transformation.
In the first part of the book - a series of analytical
essays - scholars of the Hungarian democratic transition
discuss the most relevant aspects of the Roundtable
Talks, the actors and organizations participating, the
tactics and strategies used, institution building, the
new electoral system, and constitutional reform. The
Hungarian Roundtable Talks are placed into wider historical
and international perspectives. In the second part,
eight key documents are presented with commentaries.
The book has a detailed chronology, biographies of the
most important participants, and an index.
Contributors to the volume include:
Andrew Arato - Professor in Political and Social
Theory at the Graduate Faculty of New School University,
New York; Csaba Békés - Historian, senior fellow
at the Institute of 1956, and director of the Research
Center of Cold War History András Bozóki - Associate
Professor in Political Science at the Central European
University and Eötvös Loránd University, both are in
Budapest; Melinda Kalmár - Freelance historian
focusing on the ideology of the Kádár era in Hungary;
Gergely Karácsony - PhD candidate in Sociology
at the Budapest University of Economics and a research
fellow at the Median public opinion poll institute;
Ádám Masát - Student in
History and Political Science at Eötvös Lóránd
University; János Rainer M., - Historian, director
of the Institute of 1956, recurrent visiting lecturer
at the Department of History at the Eötvös Loránd University;
Alan Renwick - Lecturer in politics at Christ
Church College, Oxford; Erzsébet Ripp - freelance
political scientist focusing on the Kádár era; Zoltán
Ripp - Historian, senior research fellow at the
Institute for Political History in Budapest John
W. Schiemann - Adjunct Professor of Political Science
at Columbia University, New York; Rudolf L. Tõkés
- Professor Emeritus in Political Science at the University
of Connecticut, in Storrs
"...an exceptional volume. Ably and inventively
edited by András Bozóki, it consists of
ten analytical chapters, a sample of key documents,
a chronology of the Hungarian National Roundtable Talks,
and forty-five brief yet informative biographies of
the principal participants. The exceptional strength
of this book is based on four pillars: (1) a comprehensive
description of all the important aspects of the roundtable
process; (2) ingenious analyses of several aspects (political,
social, cultural, and historical) of this process; (3)
several innovative theoretical contributions; and (4)
a sample of the original transcripts and documents."
- Slavic Review
"...a comprehensive overview and in-depth analysis
of the process of roundtable talks... a balanced and
well-written contribution to the study of regime change,
institution-building and elite behaviour... an essential
reading for anyone interested in the process of democratisation
in Eastern Europe." - Political Studies Review
"Das Verdienst des Bandes ist es, auch dem nicht-ungarischkundigen
Leser detaillierte Kenntnisse über Genese, Verlauf
und Ergebnisse der beiden Runden Tische une ihres Internationalen
Umfeldes zu vermitteln. Ohne diese Einblicke ist der
Systemwechsel in Ungarn und der Charakter der neuen
politischen Ordnung des Landes nicht zu verstehen."
- Südost-Forschungen
2002
520 pages
ISBN 978-963-9241-21-3 cloth $65.95 / €55.95 / Ł39.95
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