Goulash and Solidarity


Book Description

'When people ask me what it was like growing up in Hungary in the 1970s and 80s, most people expect to hear tales of secret police, bread queues and other nasty manifestations of life in a one-party state. They are invariably disappointed when I tell them that the reality was quite different and that communist Hungary, far from being hell on earth, was in fact rather a good place to live'. From my 'Goulash and Solidarity' article, The Guardian, 2nd November 2002. My book presents a detailed, nuanced account of what everyday life was really like behind the 'Iron Curtain', written from a working-class perspective. How we lived, worked, loved, played and laughed (and at times suffered too). After my original Guardian article, (which was featured on the front cover of The Week magazine as one of the 'Best British Articles') was published I received a large number of emails and letters from readers from all over the world who had given up hope that such an honest, balanced account would ever be published. The dominant view we have of countries behind the 'Iron Curtain' is a very negative one, because the accounts tend to be written by those fiercely hostile to communism. But there is another side to the story, at least in relation to my country, Hungary. Thirty years on from the seismic political changes of the autumn of 1989, which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism in eastern Europe, my book, based on first-hand experience, provides a refreshing, alternative view to the one we have read or heard so many times before. My aim in writing 'Goulash and Solidarity' is to inform you, to entertain you, and I hope, surprise you.




The Constitutions of the Communist World


Book Description

The written contributions compiled in this book are based upon lectures held during a symposium on the administrative law implementation & enforcement of community law organized by the Directorate General Financial Control & the Dutch Law Association for the Study of Protection of Financial Interests of the EC. The topic is regarded from the perspective of both administrative practice & administrative law. While concentrating on the Dutch case the arguments put forward should also be of interest to the other EC countries since they also have to deal with both community law & national administrative law. Furthermore the book sheds light upon the development of community law in general. The importance of national administrative law for the putting into practice of community law is a topic which has received increasing attention from both the sides of administrative practice & legal science. At the same time it is clear that administrative law has acquired more & more community tasks & obligations. The latter development might point towards an European version of administrative law in the future.




The Children’s Republic of Gaudiopolis


Book Description

Gaudiopolis (The City of Joy) was a pedagogical experiment that operated in a post–World War II orphanage in Budapest. This book tells the story of this children’s republic that sought to heal the wounds of wartime trauma, address prejudice and expose the children to a firsthand experience of democracy. The children were educated in freely voicing their opinions, questioning authority, and debating ideas. The account begins with the saving of hundreds of Jewish children during the Siege of Budapest by the Lutheran minister Gábor Sztehlo together with the International Red Cross. After describing the everyday life and practices of self-rule in the orphanage that emerged from this rescue operation, the book tells how the operation of the independent children’s home was stifled after the communist takeover and how Gaudiopolis was disbanded in 1950. The book then discusses how this attempt of democratization was erased from collective memory. The erasure began with the banning of a film inspired by Gaudiopolis. The Communist Party financed Somewhere in Europe in 1947 as propaganda about the construction of a new society, but the film’s director conveyed a message of democracy and tolerance instead of adhering to the tenets of socialist realism. The book breaks the subsequent silence on “The City of Joy,” which lasted until the fall of the Iron Curtain and beyond.







Volume III — Europe


Book Description

INTERNATIONAL STATUS Albania is a member of the United Nations (December 14, 1955). It is a member of other international organizations. It was a member of the League of Nations. Albania became independent on November 28, 1912, after centuries of Ottoman domination. Its existence was recognized internationally after the First Balkan War on July 28, 1913, and an international control commission drew up a constitution in 1914, providing for a monarchy with a National Assembly most of whose members were elected by the people. 4 Albania Although a neutral state, Albania became involved in the First World War, after which, in January 1920, the Albanian chiefs drew up a new constitution providing for a monarchy. In 1925, Albania was proclaimed a republic and a new constitution, based on the United States constitution, was promulgated. In 1928, the President became King and a new consti tution followed. On April 7, 1939, Italy occupied Albania and imposed a constitution providing that Albania was a monarchy under the House of Savoy. On April6, 1941, martial law was proclaimed throughout the country. After the Italian capitulation in 1943, Albania was occupied by Germany. The Albanian Communist Party was founded in November 1941, and the bases of the communist regime were laid at the second national confer ence in July 1943 of the Movement for National Liberation, created by the Party to unite and control all the forces opposing foreign occupation. This conference created Councils of National Liberation.







Education in Eastern Europe


Book Description




Importing the Law in Post-Communist Transitions


Book Description

This book,one of the very first monographs on the Hungarian Constitutional Court available in English, is a unique study of the birth of a new legal system after the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. It shows that the genesis of the new legal order was determined by massive Western involvement and an unprecedented movement of export/import of law. Anchored in a detailed comparative study of German and Hungarian constitutional case law on human dignity, this book argues that law importation was a deliberate strategy carried out by the Hungarian Court in the early years of its operation. It explains how the circumstances of the transition and the background of the importers determined the choice of German case law as a model and how the Court used it to construct its own version of the right to human dignity. It highlights the Hungarian Court's instrumentalisation of imported law in order to lay the foundations of a new conception of fundamental rights. While focusing on the Hungarian experience, this book engages with international debates and provides an original theoretical framework for approaching the movement of law from the importers' perspective.