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Inspired by Differing Traditions—Views on Christian Democracy in Two Governments of Hungary After 1989

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Rethinking Subsidiarity

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Abstract

In recent decades, Christian democracy has had a major impact on Hungarian politics. Both the first freely elected Hungarian Prime Minister, József Antall, and the current Prime Minister have favored the term Christian Democrat and have placed themselves in the heritage of this intellectual movement. This study tries to analyze the similarities and differences between the approaches of the two Hungarian politicians and explore their roots in the era between the two world wars. The study focuses on the differences between the Christian democratic movement after 1945 and the thoughts of political Catholicism in the so called Horthy-era.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    According to popular belief, József Antall received Viktor Orbán on his last day in the hospital in 1993 to share his knowledge with him and to leave the leadership of the country as a legacy to him. Although the fact of this meeting is not supported by credible sources, it quickly became a popular political belief, already immediately after the 1994 elections and is seen as an important source of political power by Orbán (Tóth 2012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department for International Relations and Diplomacy, Faculty of Public Governance and International Studies, Ludovika—University of Public Service, Budapest, Hungary

    Péter Krisztián Zachar

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  1. Péter Krisztián Zachar
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Correspondence to Péter Krisztián Zachar .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Opus College of Business, University of St. Thomas - Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, USA

    Martin Schlag

  2. Ludovika University of Public Service, Budapest, Hungary

    Boglárka Koller

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Zachar, P.K. (2024). Inspired by Differing Traditions—Views on Christian Democracy in Two Governments of Hungary After 1989. In: Schlag, M., Koller, B. (eds) Rethinking Subsidiarity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50143-2_9

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