Thèses sur le sujet « Romanians – Hungary »

Defence date: 25 February 2022
Examining Board: Prof. Alexander Etkind (European University Institute); Prof.Federico Romero (European University Institute); Prof. Constantin Iordachi (Central European University); Prof. Juliane Fürst (Leibniz Centre of Contemporary History ZZF)
The sixties witnessed many youth unrests across the globe. Compared to previous decades, a distinctive decisional category emerged: youth. They gained a central role by defining themselves in opposition to other generations and perceiving themselves as a unique one with a purpose to change history through ‘revolution’. At the same time, the youngsters considered themselves to belong to a movement that transcended their local city, the national borders, and ideological barriers. Yet, there were different ways to express the discontent against the values of the ‘gerontocracy’. This dissertation creates a local, regional, and comparative analysis of the history of sixty-eighters from Hungary and Romania. It will focus on their childhood experiences and on the impact of political decisions. A significant determinant was the cultural and psychological background of each of the protagonists. The group cohesion and the cultural and psychological background of each protagonist determined their protest tactics. Some youngsters were not interested in politics, but the state considered their activities, such as listening to Radio Free Europe or playing in a rock band to be a threat. A variety of cultural genres were involved in this process: music was an essential component of the late 1960s, which had a notable role in challenging the Establishment. Thus, another line of inquiry will explain how musicians and artists used different protest expressions, such as Maoism, rock music, or ‘passive resistance' as protest tactics. The relationship between artists and the state was not always an oppositional one. Instead, this project will use James Scott’s concepts of infrapolitics and hidden transcripts to show there was always a negotiation and a compromise between various networks.
Chapter 5 ‘Ultra-Leftist Revolution in Hungary' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as chapter '‘The long 1968’ in Hungary and its legacy' (2019) in the book ‘Unsettled 1968 in the troubled present revisiting the 50 years of discussions from east and central Europe’
The introduction of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'Eastern-European 1968s?' (2019) in the journal ‘Review of international American studies’
Chapter 1 ‘The Childhood of a Generation' of the PhD thesis draws upon an earlier version published as an article 'The pre-history of Hungarian and Romanian 1968ers' (2020) in the journal ‘Wroclaw yearbook of oral history’

The Roma are not a bounded internally homogene~us community possessing a stable group identity. They are a transnational minority without a kin state .. which continue to . be the most marginalized .and discriminated ethnic group in Europe. This thesis asks: 'Who Speaks for the Roma?' In doing so it analyses organizing structures of representation in domestic and transnational political contexts arguing that these structures articulate the shared interests of the Romani community. Whilst the role of state structure.s and international organizations is acknowledged they are ultimately downplayed in favour of representation structures which the Roma social movement create themselves. The thesis examines three types of organizing structures of representation in Hungary and Romania which claim to legitimately represent the interests of the Roma: elites; political parties; and civil society organizations. The investigation then asks whether transnational organizing.structures of representation can legitimately claim to represent the Roma: transnational advocacy networks; International Romani non-governmental organizations; and the European Roma' and Traveller Forum. The Roma social movement creates these representation structures with reference to their ethnic group identity. The purpose of these organizing structures of representation is to articulate the shared interests of the Romani community which are necessarily suppressed by the utilitarian principles of liberal democratic polities. However not all those who claim to represent the interests of the Roma do so legitimately, thus this thesis determines how legitimate these organizing structures of representation actually are. Theoretically this thesis seeks to advance understandings of the complex relationship between ethnic mobilization, interest articulation, and legitimate representation with regard to minorities, and empirically it details the case of Romani political participation in Hungary and Romania, as well as the transnational political context.

This thesis seeks to explain irredentism by identifying the set of variables that determine its occurrence. To do so it provides the necessary definition and comparative analytical framework, both lacking so far, and thus establishes irredentism as a field of study in its own right. The thesis develops a multi-variate explanatory model that is generalisable yet succinct. It builds critically on Donald Horowitz's theory of irredentism (1985;1991) which, like many studies of ethno-nationalism, underperforms due to a bias towards rationalism, materialism and individualism. The present study improves explanatory value by identifying three further variables that tackle ethno-territorial retrieval on its own terms. It argues that irredentism is primarily determined by shared ethno-national identity and the political system factors that condition its politicisation domestically and internationally. The resulting combined model is applied in two, variable-centred parts. First, it is quantitatively tested on a dataset of irredentism which the thesis collates based on its novel definition of irredentism. Second, the theory is applied in a historic case study of so-called "inconsistent irredentism" (Saideman 1998), i.e. an instance where retrieval was abandoned in an outwardly identical setting and therefore must result from factor change over time. The chosen example is that of the Hungarian irredenta in the interwar period (1920-1940), contrasted with its absence in the postcommunist era (1989-2005). To enhance generalisability, the thesis adds a comparison across space by examining Hungary and not one, but two transborder Magyar minorities (in Southern Slovakia and Transylvania). By offering a comprehensive definition of irredentism this thesis unifies previously disjointed cases for analysis. It avoids a rationalist and materialist bias in favour of what genuinely matters: namely the ethno-national bond and the factors shaping its politicisation. Because this approach does greater justice to ethno-national movements it furnishes a more explicative, generalisable and, potentially, predictive model of irredentism.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the educational disadvantage currently being suffered by Roma children in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, and to identify the most appropriate human rights mechanism with which to remedy the situation. Education is vitally important for oppressed minorities such as the Roma since, without it, individuals will be unable to fully access the complete range of their fundamental rights and so will be unable to challenge the disadvantage and discrimination that they suffer. This thesis first submits, therefore, that the traditional liberal democratic model of governance as featured in contemporary Europe is insufficient to adequately address the needs of minorities. To address this insufficiency, states must recognise a version of multiculturalism that both embraces critical pluralism and is compatible with liberal theory. Secondly, this thesis suggests that the individualistic focus of rights protection should be enhanced through an increased recognition of children’s rights so that the individual child is firmly entrenched as an autonomous rights holder. The type of education system that would exist in such a rights environment should serve to develop the autonomy and competence of individual children but also to facilitate their security within their own culture. This type of multicultural education can only be achieved if the various international instruments concerning the right to education can be required to place a more onerous burden on states parties when it comes to minority accommodation. At a domestic level, this thesis suggests that the most appropriate means by which to accommodate the Roma within the national education systems of the four countries would be through a culturally sensitive mainstreaming approach adapted from that used in England.

This thesis examines the impact of Europeanization on the foreign policy of the new member states of the European Union, using as case studies Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. It asks what the extent of Europeanization of foreign policy is and whether and to what extent there has been divergence in the way in which the new member states have responded to the similar constraints and opportunities of the European integration. Insofar as divergence can be identified, a third research question asks why there is policy divergence. It argues that the governmental politics and the politics of national identity play a key role as mediating factors for the Europeanization of the system of policy making, the process of elite socialization and the conduct of foreign policy itself. Three critical international events are used as sub-case studies in order to assess the extent of Europeanization of foreign policy of the CEE counties: the US-led war in Iraq in 2003, the NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia in 1999 and the Kosovo declaration of independence in 2008. The study’s findings suggest that the pressures of Europeanization leads to convergence in some policy areas, but domestic factors such as governmental and national identity politics offer a more convincing explanation of divergence. Overall, Europeanization is uneven not only across issue-areas, but also across countries. The limits of convergence as an outcome of Europeanization and the persistence of diversity are therefore best accounted for by the diversity of domestic factors.

The history of the ethnic borderlands of Hungary and Romania in the years 1867–1944 were marked by changing national borders, ethnic conflicts and economic problems. Using a local case study of the city and county of Szatmár/Satu-Mare, this thesis investigates the practice and social mechanisms of economic nationalizing. It explores the interplay between ethno-national and economic factors, and furthermore analyses what social mechanisms lead to and explain inclusion, exclusion and annihilation. The underlying principle of economic nationalizing in both countries was the separation of citizens into ethnic categories and the establishment of a dominant core nation entitled to political and economic privileges from the state. National leaders implemented a policy of economic nationalizing that exploited and redistributed resources taken from the minorities. To pursue this end, leaders instrumentalized ethnicity, which institutionalized inequality and ethnic exclusion. This process of ethnic, and finally racial, exclusion marked the whole period and reached its culmination in the annihilation of the Jews throughout most of Hungary in 1944. For nearly a century, ethnic exclusion undermined the various nationalizing projects in the two countries: the Magyarization of the minorities in dualist Hungary (1867–1918); the Romanianization of the economy of the ethnic borderland in interwar Romania (1918–1940); and finally the re-Hungarianization of the economy in Second World War Hungary (1940–1944). The extreme case of exclusion, namely the Holocaust, revealed that the path of exclusion brought nothing but destruction for everyone. This reinforces the thesis that economic nationalizing through the exclusion of minorities induces a vicious circle of ethnic bifurcation, political instability and unfavorable conditions for achieving economic prosperity. Exclusion served the short-term elite’s interest but undermined the long-term nation’s ability to prosper.

There is a substantial amount of existing literature that focuses on the revolutionary events of 1989 in East-Central Europe. Yet, there are few comparisons which apply a comparative-historical approach to a small set of cases. A large body of existing literature provides the ideal situation for a comparative-historical study. This thesis will test the utility of applying a comparative-historical methodological approach to the events of 1989 in four countries in East-Central Europe. The four countries are paired into two cases. The case of Poland and Hungary is compared with the case of Bulgaria and Romania. A theoretical frame of reference is developed from previous comparative-historical studies of revolutionary events, criticisms of them, and the general theoretical debates which they generate. This frame of reference incorporates a broad range of variables, and is used to inform the application of the method. Differences (and similarities) between the cases are then investigated, and the utility of the method assessed. Additionally, the application of the method allows some current theoretical and conceptual debates concerning the East- Central European events to be confronted. Part 1 of the thesis applies a comparative-historical method of analysis to the cases up to, and including some aspects of the 1989 events. In Part 2, patterns of difference between the cases are identified in terms of revolutionary forms and outcomes. Following the logic of the method common factors are identified as potential contributing factors to the collapse of communism, while patterns of difference suggest that the political, economic and social 'nature' of the communist systems had an impact on the forms of change and their outcomes. It is recognised that the comparative-historical approach utilised in this thesis has limitations. However, the method is shown to be useful for identifying common factors across cases, and significant variations between cases, which can generate potential explanation, and provide better understanding of such revolutionary phenomena as that which occurred in East-Central Europe in 1989.

This thesis explores whether and to what extent civil society within the framework of post-communist transition, provides a bulwark against the resurgence of exclusivist nationalism, in four countries: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. In that respect minorities' and especially Roma's rights are extensively examined. Related to these issues is to what extent the third sector has been able to develop a democratic political culture among the populations of the respective countries. During the course of the research, the concept of political culture was perceived relatively strong, considering the short period of post-communist transition. However, it is worth looking into whether civil society has managed to develop attitudes consistent with what a democratic political culture demands. Non-governmental organisations have been selected as agents of civil society, capable of articulating the demands in the new post-communist era. Particular consideration is given to the theoretical relation between civil society, nationalism and democracy both before and after the fall of communism. The same topics are briefly presentedfo r eachc ountry individually. The empirical section examines three different methods of appraising NGOs: firstly NGOs are assessed according to basic criteria namely, founding members, financial resources, co-operation with local authorities etc. Secondly, their direct impact on legislation and institutional development is analysed. Thirdly, their impact on the development of a democratic political culture is examined. Finally, all factors are evaluated and concluding comparative remarks are made

There are long-standing debates regarding the history and identity of Ottoman communities that settled in Southeast Europe during the Ottoman period. As with any political expansion, individuals from Anatolia, the capital region of the empire, were likely to have migrated to newly acquired areas as soldiers, administrators, and political leaders. A mass migration of people is, however, not the only process that may have defined the Ottoman communities in Southeast Europe, as historic documents also record the conversion of Europeans to Islam for a variety of reasons. A consensus on whether migration or conversion practices more significantly impacted the biological makeup of Ottoman Europe has not been reached.

Thus far, the nature and impact of the Ottoman past in Europe have been predominately studied from the evidence and viewpoint of written history. Anthropological methods and theory have the potential to shed light on the population dynamics of this key period however. This dissertation employed advancements from both archaeology and biological anthropology to conduct a regional bioarchaeological analysis of the European Ottoman period, seeking a better understanding of identity in this historic context.

Two forms of analyses allowed for in-depth inquiry into biological aspects of identity in Ottoman Europe. First, the assessment of biological affinities from four European Ottoman period groups was done using biological distance analyses of craniometric and cranial non-metric morphological variation. These communities, today located in Hungary, Romania, and Croatia, were compared not only to each other, but also to other European and Anatolian populations. The European and Anatolian comparative populations were represented by four skeletal series from Hungary, Austria, Croatia, and Anatolia. The second method, utilized for one of the Ottoman period populations (from Romania), analyzed strontium isotopes from human and faunal dental enamel. Together, these methods provided a dynamic approach for highlighting markers of biological identity and affinity from human skeletal remains.

The use of biological distance and strontium isotope analyses highlighted a number of interesting patterns in the European Ottoman communities. The Ottoman populations appear diverse in terms of constituting a mix of peoples from different biological backgrounds. This is evident both within a single Ottoman community, as well as between communities located in different parts of the Ottoman territory. Evidence of this diversity was clear between males and females in different Ottoman period populations. Larger than expected between-sex biological differences within the Ottoman communities suggest distinct population histories for males and females.

The diversity found within and between the four Ottoman period populations analyzed in this research can be used to better understand different social and political processes influencing the demography of Ottoman Europe. With migration and conversion frequently cited as the two main processes contributing to population change in the region, this analysis allowed for the consideration of how unique trajectories of both impacted different individuals and different groups of people in these societies. The biological data highlighted in this study disagree with many simplistic historical conclusions that cite either migration or conversion as the singular process behind the creation of Ottoman communities and the European Ottoman identity.

Despite historic evidence that immigration from Anatolia and the conversion of Europeans to Islam impacted the demography of European Ottomans, these communities are at times treated as biologically homogeneous ethnic groups. The Ottoman-established Muslim populations in Southeast Europe are not only treated as a distinct group historically, the division between Muslims or ‘Turks’ and Europeans has been maintained in some modern communities as well. With Islamic relations in some regions of contemporary Europe continuing to deteriorate, long-held notions that European Muslims are the ‘other’, trespassers on Christian lands, are unlikely to be assuaged. The creation of the European Muslim identity descending from the Ottoman period includes a complex history that is still not fully understood. Many modern identities are created from a complex amalgamation of biological and cultural processes, both historical and modern in origin, committing diverse peoples into uniform categories. The bioarchaeology of this dynamic period provided new data on groups of people that influenced both the past and present in Southeast Europe.

In den dreißiger Jahren verschärfte sich die Lage durch das Vorrücken der nationalistischen Rechten sowohl in Ungarn als auch in Rumänien. 1934 wurde auch Bartóks Konzerttätigkeit eingeschränkt und er selbst zum Ziel unwürdiger politischer Angriffe. Die Korrespondenz Bartók - Brăiloiu muss in diesem historischen Kontext, den sie auch reichlich widerspiegelt, gedeutet werden.

La France, durant la détente, mena une politique étrangère qui mit à profit les déviations internes de la Hongrie et internationales de la Roumanie par rapport à l'URSS. La politique française poursuivit des objectifs à la fois bilatéraux et multilatéraux : elle inscrivit son action dans un cadre hérité du passé, mais aussi dans un processus mouvant, celui d'Helsinki. Cette époque s'avéra une transition d'un point de vue aussi bien international que national : de la crise tchécoslovaque en 1968 au regain de tensions dans la seconde moitié des années 1970, les vecteurs d'influence de la France dans l'ancienne Europe centrale et oriental évoluèrent et s'enrichirent. Un partenariat difficile fut mis en place avec la Roumanie, qui avait entretenu de liens politiques étroits avec la France avant sa satellisation par l'URSS. Quant à la Hongrie, un dialogue naquit avec elle. Les limites des relations culturelles et militaires furent à l'inverse patentes. Ces deux démocraties populaires furent en effet perçues en France à travers tout un spectre de représentations, qui allait de l'adversaire militaire et idéologique au partenaire diplomatique pouvant converger avec l'Ouest. A contrario, les rapports économiques acquirent une signification croissante et furent encadrés par l'État. Ils répondirent à la volonté politique de développer les industries de haute-technologie en France, de s'opposer l'hégémonie des États-Unis en la matière, et de mettre à profit l'asymétrie de développement entre l'Est et l'Ouest pour saper la domination de l'URSS sur son glacis. En dépit de divergences au sein de l'État l'ouverture française fut ainsi menée de manière globalement cohérente
France, during the "détente", led a foreign policy which took advantage of Hungary's and Romania' peculiarities compared to the USSR, Bucharest as for the international and Budapest as for the domestic policies. The French aims were both bilateral and multilateral. The French policy was developed in framework inherited from the past, but in a more fast-changing framework too, the Helsinki process. The period appeared to be a transition from the international and national points of view: from the Czechoslovak crisis in 1968 to the new tensions du ring the second half of the 1970s, the French way to influence former Central European countries changed and was enhanced. A difficult partnership was set up with Romania which country France had politically influenced before 1945, and a dialog created with Hungary. However concerning cultural and military relations, limitations were obvious. Indeed, these two people's democracies were seen in France through a whole spectrum of representations, from a military and ideological adversary to a diplomatic partner which was maybe able to converge with the West. On the contrary, economic relation became more and more important and were strongly supported by the government. Those relations were linked to a political determination to develop high-technology industries in France, to resist the United State hegemony in those fields and to undermine the Soviet rule on its empire by taking advantage of the asymmetrical level of development between the East and the West. Therefore, in spite of differences am on the state's administrations, the way the French relations were opened up to the East proved to be mostly consistent

La crise financière a démystifié le système capitaliste aux yeux de larges segments de la population d’Europe de l'Est, exacerbant le décalage entre les attentes suscitées par le processus de démocratisation et la situation, souvent difficile, d’un nombre important de citoyens. Dans ce contexte, l'indignation que certains d’entre eux expriment s'est dirigée contre la classe politique, donnant naissance à de nouvelles formes de mobilisation. Cette thèse analyse ces mobilisations dans un cadre comparatif incluant des réseaux militants en Hongrie et en Roumanie, sur la période 2008 - 2014. Quelles sont les caractéristiques des récentes vagues de protestations ? Ces protestations s’inscrivent-elles dans la continuité de répertoires d’action plus anciens ? Si la Roumanie et la Hongrie sont « en transition », quelles sont les mutations qui affectent les conditions de mobilisation ? Comment expliquer les différences de dynamiques que l’on observe dans les deux pays ? Pour répondre à ces questions, nous avons essayé de bâtir des passerelles entre deux champs de recherche, celui de la transition démocratique et celui des mouvements sociaux. En Roumanie comme en Hongrie, la prise en compte des transformations systémiques induites par la transition semble en effet essentielle à la compréhension des phénomènes de mobilisation récents. L'analyse détaillée des processus d'accumulation de capital social relationnel et cognitif qui en résulte - à l’origine de l’émergence de nouvelles générations d’activistes – constitue l’apport principal de notre travail. La démarche diachronique que nous avons adoptée nous a par ailleurs permis d’identifier et de caractériser les influences qu’un réseau militant peut avoir sur un autre et l’impact d’une protestation sur la suivante. Soucieux de produire des informations précises et circonstanciées sur l’environnement politique, économique et culturel dans lequel naissent les mobilisations étudiées, nous avons interrogé, à partir d’un sondage en ligne, des spécialistes de la société civile, des médias et de la vie politique des deux pays. Parallèlement, nous avons réalisé 26 entretiens approfondis avec des activistes en Hongrie et en Roumanie pour parvenir à définir les processus de mobilisation des ressources, les canaux de mobilisation utilisées, les caractéristiques des réseaux et des organisations en présence, mais aussi l’identité des activistes et, subséquemment, leur perception du contexte d’action dans lequel ils s’inscrivent. En prenant en compte l’ensemble de ces éléments, nous avons pu montrer comment l'accumulation d’expériences de mobilisations nourrissait les mouvements suivants, plus nombreux et plus visibles au fil du temps. Dans cette dynamique, les réseaux sociaux en ligne jouent un rôle essentiel. La socialisation politique sur Facebook a notamment contribué au développement d’une identité commune et à la transformation de l'indignation personnelle en engagement collectif. La multiplication des interactions sociales, une certaine similitude de goûts et de visions du monde, ainsi qu’un effort de réseautage ont permis à l'activisme en ligne de se transformer en activisme de rue. La nature et l’intensité de cet engagement diffèrent selon les deux pays. En Roumanie, « un militantisme récréationnel » puisant ses racines dans la simultanéité de la consommation culturelle et de l'implication civique est observable. A l’inverse, en Hongrie l’enthousiasme civique semble s’essouffler. Confrontés à un pouvoir politique stable, soutenu par la majorité de la population et capable de s'opposer fermement aux initiatives de la société civile, les mouvements de contestation hongrois n’ont pas réussi à déstabiliser le pouvoir en place. Cet exemple montre qu’une culture de protestation relativement vivace ne débouche pas automatiquement sur un fort niveau de mobilisation citoyenne. Par contraste, le cas de la Roumanie
In Eastern Europe the financial crisis of 2008 highlighted the gap between expectations concerning the new configuration of liberal and capitalist states on the one hand, and the social realities on the other. Waves of contention followed, which were provoked especially by austerity measures implemented by the respective governments. These were in their majority directed against the post-communist elites, which were held responsible for the perceived slow progress regarding economic performance and the democratization process in the years before. With the purpose of analyzing new forms of collective action and protests that appeared following this crisis, this dissertation is dedicated to study, in a comparative manner, activist networks in Hungary and Romania between 2008 and 2014.The following questions are in the center of the study: Are those recent waves of mobilization different from forms of protests prior to the crisis or can we observe a continuation of repertoires of contention? If Romania and Hungary are considered to be countries still located in the transition process, without having reached the “goal” of consolidated democracies, are the conditions and forms of collective action also undergoing profound transformations? If so, how can we explain the different dynamics in those two countries?Given the fact, that the analysis of social movements is becoming a multicentric subfield of social sciences, the present study draws on a diversity of analytical angles, not only stemming from approaches to investigate social movements and regime change, but also including additional theoretical avenues, in order to answer these main questions. Taking into account the transformation background of Romania and Hungary seems the appropriate perspective to understand recent mobilizations. For this purpose, this study analyzes processes of the accumulation of cognitive and relational social capital, shaping a new generation of activists. By doing so, the emphasis could be put on observing the effects of protests on subsequent mobilizations and the spillover/ interaction between activist networks over time. In a first step, I gathered comparable data on the political, economic and social environment, in which these networks arose, by carrying out expert on-line surveys in both countries. For a better understanding of mechanisms of resource mobilization, mobilization channels, network characteristics and organizational features, I conducted 26 in-depth interviews with activists from both countries. As a result, I was able to highlight the significance of protest-specific experiences for future mobilizations. Online social networks appear to play a key role in this dynamic in contemporary social movements, mainly through their capacity of generating a collective identity and transforming personal indignation into collective action. The nature and the intensity of this dynamic vary in the two countries. While I observed a growth of, what I called “recreational activism” in Romania, resulting from the concomitance of patterns of cultural consumption and civic involvement, a certain protest fatigue can be attested for the first years after the crisis in Hungary. Confronted with stable political configurations and a government that is widely supported by the electorate, movements contesting the power of Fidesz were not able to destabilize existing power structures in Hungary. Hence, this study shows that a longstanding culture of protest and of civic engagement does not necessarily lead, in different circumstances, to high levels of political activism of challengers to political power. Furthermore, the Romanian case suggests that rather the absence of such a culture, combined with a lack of precedent and experiences for both, engaged citizens and authorities can open spaces for renegotiating rules and provoke (lasting) political and cultural changes

Les débuts d'une agitation proprement « antisémite » en France (non seulement en 1886 avec la parution de La France juive d'Édouard Drumont mais dès le début de la décennie) n'ont guère été considérés par l'historiographie qu'au regard de la situation nationale. Pourtant, ces débuts coïncidèrent très exactement avec divers développements de la « question juive » à l'échelle européenne auxquels les premiers antisémites français firent d'ailleurs abondamment référence. La thèse se propose d'explorer cette séquence exceptionnelle de quelques années (approximativement 1878-1884) à travers sa réception française et tâche de mettre en évidence sa profondeur historique. L'adoption d'une focale large (ou perspective européenne) permet ainsi de dégager une dynamique de fond qui correspond à l'émergence progressive, tout au long du XIXe siècle, d'une « question juive » considérée par l'ouest du continent comme typiquement est-européenne. À ce titre, le tournant des années 1880 ne fut pas seulement le moment où se fit jour en Allemagne puis ailleurs cette forme d'hostilité antijuive supposée nouvelle et autoproclamée « antisémitique ». Elle fut également – en particulier avec les polémiques sur les juifs de Roumanie lors du congrès de Berlin puis l'écho international donné à la vague de pogroms russes de 1881-1882 – une étape cruciale dans la rencontre de deux hémisphères à la fois géographiques et thématiques de la « question juive ».Ainsi mis en contexte, les débuts de l'agitation antisémite en France ne se limitèrent pas à l'émergence d'une forme particulièrement radicale d'hostilité antijuive, initiative de quelques polémistes plus ou moins en vue et de structures militantes souvent marginales. Ces débuts confirmèrent parallèlement l'existence de profondes équivoques chez les tenants d'une approche libérale de la « question juive », c'est-à-dire ceux qui étaient les plus susceptibles de défendre les juifs face aux attaques de leurs ennemis
The beginnings of the "anti-Semitic" agitation in France in the 1880s – not only with the publication of Edouard Drumont's La France juive in 1886 but even earlier in the same decade – have been explained above all by national factors in the historiography. Yet, they coincided with various concerns about the "Jewish question" on a European scale, concerns to which the first French anti-Semites were extensively referring in their texts.This PhD thesis explores (in depth) the French reception of a European phenomenon during the span of a few exceptional years (approximately 1878 to 1884). By focusing on the European context this study reveals the gradual emergence, throughout the nineteenth century, of a "Jewish question" considered by the West of the continent as typically Eastern European. As such, the turning point of the 1880s was not only the moment when, first in Germany and then in other countries, this supposedly new form of anti-Jewish hostility arose, which was called by its actors itself "anti-Semitic". These years were also – especially with the controversies over the Jews of Romania at the Congress of Berlin and the international echo given to the wave of pogroms of 1881-1882 in Russia – a crucial step in the confrontation between two hemispheres, both geographical and thematic, of the "Jewish question."Thus put in context, the beginnings of anti-Semitic agitation in France were not limited to the emergence of a particularly radical form of anti-Jewish hostility, initiated by some more or less known polemists or rather marginal groups. These beginnings also confirmed the existence of profoundly equivocal attitudes among proponents of a liberal approach to the "Jewish question," that is to say, those who were most likely to defend the Jews against the attacks of their enemies

Defence date: 19 January 2001
Examining board: Prof. Steven Lukes, London School of Economics (supervisor) ; Prof. Árpád Szakolczai, University College Cork (co-supervisor) ; Prof. György Bence, ELTE, Bölcsészettudományi Kar, Budapest ; Prof. Christian Joppke, European University Institute, Firenze
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

Scholarly studies of the nation as a socially constructed community, while accurate, do not explain how individuals in a predominantly agricultural society build and mobilize a national community outside of traditional political arenas and without the resources of a bureaucratic nation-state. This investigation of late-nineteenth-century Romanian nation building under the Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People, or Astra, examines the educational and cultural activities Astra used to communicate nationalist messages to Romanian villagers and the responses of those villagers who funded and participated in Astra's movement. I argue that thousands of villagers participated in Astra events because Astra created a forum that addressed their needs and interests and raised their social status. Villagers never achieved equality with their social superiors in Astra, but villagers became more equal to them as Romanians than they had been as mere villagers. It was not easy to incorporate villagers into the association. As this dissertation shows, nation building is a contentious undertaking subject to diverse social pressures and full of internal conflicts and contradictions. Astra leaders hoped to build a unified and prosperous national community, but their initial attempts to transform peasants into rational and efficient farmers with academic programs mostly appealed to Romanian intellectuals. In order to retain their educated members and to attract peasants to the association, Astra leaders legitimized two competing images of the Romanian national community, one based on the values of educated Romanian professionals and one based on traditional peasant culture. The dual representations of the nation both created the impression that a unified national community existed and underscored the divisions in the community, making it possible to think of the nation as a homogeneous community while simultaneously contesting its boundaries. Resulting contestation, I argue, enabled rural Romanians to challenge Astra's professionals for more influence over the national movement and forced intellectuals to address rural interests. Although this study examines the specifics of Astra's national movement, it also offers a potentially fruitful approach for understanding nation building among other marginal groups in search of greater power and autonomy over their own lives.

Defence date: 23 May 2007
Examining board: Prof. Michael Keating (EUI, supervisor) ; Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig (ETH Zürick)(External supervisor) ; Prof. Will Kymlicka (Quenn's University, Ontario) ; Prof. Rainer Bauböck (EUI)
This thesis analyses the policies aimed at influencing the situation of the Hungarian minorities in Romania and Slovakia undertaken by three European organisations, the Council of Europe, the EU and the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities. The focus is on the way in which the organisations have conceptualised contested concepts concerning national minorities, minority rights and minority policy in general, when reacting to the policies of the Hungarian, Romanian and Slovak states that have been directed at the Hungarian minorities. Starting with the assumption that many of the concepts upon which minority policies are based are essentially contested, the thesis sets up a framework for analysing the use of specific interpretations of such concepts in argumentation. More specifically, the framework makes it possible to look at how specific interpretations or conceptualisations of such concepts have been used as implicit warrants. By analysing the use of warrants in the texts issued by the organisations in the arguments reacting to the Hungarian minority policies of the three organisations, the thesis provides a picture of how the conceptualisations of different contested concepts developed. Furthermore, by comparing the use of conceptualisations by the organisations, it is argued that although the organisations started out from different positions, they have gradually converged. And this convergence was centred on the emergence of an ideal minority policy which framed the minorities as unitary entities, which should have the right to influence decisions affecting them as minorities. This convergence was due to the appearance of the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities, increased cooperation between the organisations and the reliance of the EU on the assessments of the other two organisations in the context of EU enlargement. Yet, the organisations have often been incoherent, and have treated different issues from very different perspectives.

The diploma thesis deals with the position of the Hungarian minority in Serbian Vojvodina and Romanian Transylvania using the comparative method. Hungarians in Serbia and Romania represent a very large national minority and they became an integral part of the local culture and society. The level of Hungarian minority rights in the host countries is compared in four areas: legislation, political representation and institutionalization of the minority, mother tongue education opportunities and the Hungarian minority media. Apart from a brief outline of the historical context, the work focuses exclusively on the period after the fall of communism in both states to the present. During these years, there has been the biggest shift in the area of minority rights. The concept of ethnic parallelism is applied to all researched areas. Related to this, the so-called ethnolinguistic vitality approach is used, which deals with the conditions for the preservation of minority languages in the majority society. Special attention is paid to the influence of the Hungarian government under Primer Minister Viktor Orbán on the life of Hungarians abroad, which is significantly growing.

Hans von Aachen, court artist to the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, created a series of small painting called the Allegories on the Long Turkish War. Von Aachen made the Allegories between 1604 and 1606 and Rudolf II kept them bound in a red book in his Kunstkammer. This series selects events and battles from the Long War against the Ottoman Empire, 1593-1606, to create a flattering propagandistic image of the emperor in order to strengthen his support. Rudolf’s brother, Archduke Matthias of Austria, began plotting against the emperor beginning in 1600. By 1606 he was actively usurping Rudolf’s political power. I examine von Aachen’s visual description of imperial power, the alternate history the Allegories present, and the ways they engage with Neo-Platonic theories to convey validity to viewers. In my thesis, I outline the events of the Long War in order to compare them to von Aachen’s portrayals and to understand how he restructures chronological history to convey his message about Rudolf’s rulership. I briefly analyze each painting but I focus primarily on the eighth scene, the Conquest of Székesfehérvár. Sultan Mehmed III sits opposite Rudolf II in dignified defeat in this painting. I investigate the visual treatment of the sultan through the historical interactions between the Ottoman and Holy Roman Empires and propose the political function served by depicting him as a noble enemy. I finally discuss the way von Aachen uses symbols and allegory to convey a potent message and convince the viewer of its validity. Ultimately, these works should be seen as political propaganda used to combat Rudolf’s brother Archduke Matthias’ political takeover and not as Rudolf’s fantastical escapism from his losing battle against his brother.
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Defence date: 8 September 2016
Examining Board: Professor Laura Lee Downs, European University Institute (Supervisor) ; Professor Pieter M. Judson, European University Institute (Second Reader) ; Professor Doris Bergen, University of Toronto ; Professor Tara Zahra, The University of Chicago
This dissertation investigates the National Socialist mobilization of ethnic German ("Donauschwaben") children and youth in two multiethnic, post-Habsburg borderland territories: the Western Banat and the Batschka. Weaving together archival materials, the contemporary press, and original oral history interviews, it traces the evolution of boys' and girls' extra-curricular youth organizations from the Habsburg Empire's 1918 collapse to the ethnic Germans' 1944 "expulsion" from the region. Focusing initially on the interwar period, the dissertation shows how Yugoslavia's ethnic German educational activists quickly framed their demands on national terms. From the 1920s onwards, secular and religious authorities thereby attracted Germany's attention and aid, giving rise to a "nationalization" of local concerns and a politicization of youth. Curricular frustrations, however, spurred extra-curricular solutions: from the 1930s, Donauschwaben youth became a bone of contention between Catholic, Protestant, pro- Reich, anti-Reich, and Yugoslavist youth organizations, each of which promulgated its own visions of "Germanness." Turning to the years between 1941 and 1944— when the Batschka became Hungarian-occupied, and the Western Banat a semi-autonomous, Reich-occupied territory under ethnic German administration— this dissertation deploys a comparative and multiscalar approach in order to explore the experiences of Donauschwaben children and youth under divergent occupational regimes. In the Banat, the curricular, extracurricular, and military domains meshed to coerce all ethnic German youth into the pro- Nazi "Deutsche Jugend," extinguishing any non-Nazi "national" alternatives; in the Batschka, Hungarian nationalization projects, Catholic activism, and the Third Reich's imperial ambitions continued to compete over the Donauschwaben's loyalty, shattering communities over diverse conceptions of "Germanness." In both regions, the majority of youth ultimately joined National Socialist organizations, thus becoming agents of their own, and their peers', nationalization, actors in local inter- and intra-ethnic conflict, and soldiers in Nazi Germany's devastating military campaigns.

The Thesis with title " Armament production for Whermacht and the Army of Aliance in Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1939 - 1945) is interested in detailed description of armament production within quality and quantity armoured of vehicles and infantry weapons made in war years 1939 - 1945 in Czech munition factories. Foreword part deals with Czech production efore Munich agrément,suitable conditions for militarization and empowerment German Army nor the use in industry either for strategy location. In following chapters the work describes main munition factories (Škoda Plzeň - Skoda Werke, ČKD Praha - BMM, Munition faktory Brno)and due to occupation our country,Czechoslovakia,maximal use of technical and human potenciál in Protectorate.The same it documents sale of spare weapons (cannons and munition) and presents German production,too. In other chapters it directs to confrontal of weapons,thein improvement,following development,army tanks, (mainly tank ŠKODA vz. 35, tank ŠKODA vz. 35,light tank LT vz. 38 and later fighter tank and offensive cannons from útočná ČKD Prague , Marder III, Hetzer, Grille), infantry weapons made in Brnopěchotní (Carabine Mauser K98 and gunmachine MG34, MG42, MG131). It mentios the biggest problem of German armament industry during War,that was critical shortage of raw...