Diversity and the European Public Sphere: The Case of Hungary

András Bozóki, Róbert Sata, Anna A9 Selmeczi, Beáta Huszka

Research output: Working paper/PreprintWorking paper

Abstract (may include machine translation)

This country report aims to examine current developments in the European Union and considers how European domestic societies respond to the challenges of EU integration. The goal of the report is to identify the factors which determine how new member states, such as Hungary, respond to questions of migration, citizenship, and diversity inherent in Europeanization. The main hypothesis is that attitudes towards cultural diversity (understood very broadly) and political institutions present in Hungarian society will affect the Europeanization of public spheres as well as societal attitudes towards Europeanization. The report identifies elements of openness in various kinds of public spaces towards the idea of Europeanization. The report assesses the features of social/political actors and of sub-European communicative public spaces that promote or hinder the development of various types of European belongings and citizens’ involvement (through different associations) in European policy making. In order to achieve this, the report inquires into how civic interaction and aggregation of interests on European issues can happen at multiple levels of society. The report is based on a very broad understanding of societal actors that comprises political parties next to the more traditional ‘civil society’ actors such as NGOs, think tanks, or the media and treats these as components of communicative public spaces and assesses their role in and contribution to the articulation of Hungarian society’s response to Europeanization. In order to be able to assess attitudes towards Europeanization, the report analyzes the following four European policy issues that are most relevant for Europeanization: the European Constitution; European citizenship; mobility, migration, and asylum policy; and European enlargement. In order to achieve its proposed goals, the report relies on qualitative data by selecting three actors for each category in Hungary. The critical analysis of the empirical data gathered from content analysis, personal interviews and available sources enables us to assess the internal integration and cohesion of society and the boundaries of the public sphere (with special focus on Europeanization) and of the demos that it accommodates.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationBergen
PublisherEurosphere
Number of pages107
ISBN (Electronic)1890-5986
StatePublished - Mar 2010

Publication series

NameEurosphere country reports ; 14.

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