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Concepts of Politics in Modern Hungarian Thought

Concepts of Politics in Modern Hungarian Thought cover

Concepts of Politics in Modern Hungarian Thought

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Pre-order. Available Feb 19 2026
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Description

This book presents an overview of the concepts of 'politics' and of 'the political' in Hungary since 1526. Through a detailed methodological introduction and eleven case studies, Concepts of Politics in Modern Hungarian Thought examines various approaches taken at different turning points in the history of Hungary. The book surveys the evolution of thought on the subject, from the 16th century, when Hungary was partly under Ottoman, and partly under Habsburg rule, through the period of the dualist Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, after the Austro-Hungarian Settlement of 1867, up to the period of the Communist regime of the second half of the 20th century.

Bringing together perspectives from intellectual historians, legal scholars, political philosophers and even historians of economic thought, this volume provides insights both into the political ideas of important but lesser-known Hungarian authors, and into the nature of the challenges the political community had to cope with. It deepens understanding of what was meant by the concept of 'the political' in different periods whilst providing a clearer picture of the shifts and continuities in Hungarian political thought and culture over the last five centuries.

Table of Contents

1.Concept of Politics in Modern Hungarian Political Thought (Sixteenth-Twentieth Centuries)
Ferenc Hörcher (Ludovika University of Public Services (Research Institute of Politics and Government; HUN-REN Institute of Philosophy, Budapest, Hungary).
2. Unity and Division: Transforming concepts of nation in early modern Hungarian political thought Gábor Petneházi (University of Innsbruck, Austria)
3. The Transition from Machiavellianism to the Paradigm of Rational Self-Interest in the Hungarian History of Political Ideas
Ádám Smrcz (Ludovika University of Public Services (Research Institute of Politics and Government)
4. The Meaning of 'Political' in the Discourse of Political Religions: Hungary in the long 19th century
Tamás Nyirkos (Ludovika University of Public Services (Research Institute of Politics and Government); Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest Hungary)
5. The Limits of the Politics of the Estates
Ágoston Nagy (Ludovika University of Public Services, Budapest, Hungary)
6. Competing Concepts of 'Politics' at the Dawn of the Reform Era in Hungary
Henrik Honich (Ludovika University of Public Services, Budapest, Hungary)
7. The Political Community in the Political Thinking of István Gorove
Kálmán Tóth (Ludovika University of Public Services (Research Institute of Politics and Government, Budapest, Hungary)
8. Women and Politics in the Reform Age: Aspects of the 'political' in Polixéna Wesselényi's travel writing
Márta Pellérdi (Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary)
9. Individual Freedom as opposed to Political Liberty: Montesquieu, Eötvös, and Concha
Eszter Kovács (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium)
10. The Notions of 'Politics' and 'Political' in the Writings of Pál Hunfalvy in the mid-19th Century
László L. Lajtai (Ludovika University of Public Services, Budapest, Hungary)
11. The Concept of Politics in the Hungarian Textbooks of Political Studies from the late 19th Century
Kálmán Pócza, Botond Jereb (Ludovika University of Public Services, Mathias Corvinus Collegium, Hungary)
12. Aurel Kolnai's Politico-Moral Realism
Zoltán Balázs (Corvinus University, Budapst, Hungary)
13. The Politics of 'Anti-Politics': Politics as engagement in dissent
Milán Pap (Ludovika University of Public Services, Budapest, Hungary)
14. Epilogue
Ferenc Hörcher, Ádám Smrcz (Ludovika University of Public Services (Research Institute of Politics and Government); HUN-REN Institute of Philosophy, Budapest, Hungary)

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published Feb 19 2026
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 224
ISBN 9781350513938
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 24 bw illus
Dimensions 234 x 156 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Anthology Editor

Ferenc Hörcher

Ferenc Hörcher is Head of the Research Institute o…

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