"Law and legality will be the greatest stake in many of the conflicts we are facing"
The Senate of ELTE University has honored you with the title of doctor et professor honoris causa, which you will receive on May 9 in Budapest. What are your thoughts on this recognition?
I am very proud of this honor. I have always been a very patriotic Hungarian, and to me, such an honor from a Hungarian university is more important than anything comparable. I am going to be honest: I have done a few things in my life to deserve this, but I am still very surprised that it actually happened. A couple of friends have done a lot on my behalf.
What motivated you to pursue a career in social sciences?
We were poor Hungarian refugees in the U.S., and while my father believed that I should become a medical doctor or a lawyer (he was once excluded by the famous numerus clausus), that would have taken too long to achieve. So, we and I chose chemical engineering. But alas, I was very good at history studies, and did not really love the sciences.
So, I shifted to history, making my poor father very upset.
Then I did so well that even he forgave me (my mother was always on my side!).
Why did you find the study of civil movements, constitution making processes and, more recently, the phenomenon of populism interesting and important?
The Polish and Hungarian events and my Hungarian friends (the Lukacs School so-called) put me on this path. The processes moved in stages, and I followed the stages as actively as I could, mainly with my writings. Constitution making everywhere was the climax, and I spent more time on it than on anything else. Today, on the contrary, I think authoritarian populism has become the main challenge, and that is where I turned. At all these stages, I remained very much tied to the ongoing challenges of Hungarian history and remained a part (if an external one) of the regiments the famous song about Lajos Kossuth once called for.
On the occasion of your honorary doctorate, you will give a lecture at the Faculty of Social Sciences at ELTE titled ‘The Adventures of Democracy: Parabola or Cycle?’ What prompted you to pick this particular topic?
Exactly this title reveals the choices political participants face in many countries today, including Hungary. What has happened in the last 15 years is not hard to reconstruct. But where is it all going? If it is a cycle between democracy and authoritarianism, then
the question is whether we have reached the low point, and if not, will we and when?
And if it is only a parabola of democracy, then there remain obviously elements around which resistance, protest and reversal could be organized. In both cases, civil society action would be necessary, either to begin the next democratic phase of the cycle or to reverse the development in a democratic direction. Only participants, both in government and civil society, can decide which it is, and what to do in either case.
What goals do you have in mind for your future endeavors?
I am 80 years old. I would like to continue teaching because I have wonderful foreign students working with me. I would also like to finish a book on the themes I just discussed, and I hope the historical process will give the new book a happy ending.
How did you get in touch with the Faculty of Social Sciences?
I have many friends and colleagues in important Hungarian institutions, including ELTE (and, in the past, also among members of the democratic opposition). They know that I care not only about scholarship but also about what will happen to them at home, and to the country itself.
You are equally at home in both the United States and Hungary. How do you see the current state of higher education and scientific research?
I can judge only with respect to the U.S.
I think the situation currently is very difficult.
First came the woke or the politically correct ideology, that meant aggressive measures against traditional, white male professors, and their courses and specialties. This trend, also against European studies, led to a serious fall in levels, even at the most famous universities. Now, the right has adopted its own version of woke under totally misleading claims of anti-semitism or anti-white attitudes. This will lead to a lot of fear (not on my part, of course, not after having lived under Szálasi, Rákosi and Kádár!) and, therefore, a further decline in intellectual levels. But our American universities are resisting the pressures, and they have a good chance to prevail, given the incoherence and irrationality of the attacks there, and especially in the economy. That, too, is or will be civil society in action!
What advice would you give the younger generation working in social sciences?
Study, study, study, or learn, learn, learn. More practically, however, I would say study law, either at a law faculty or within the social sciences! Law and legality will be the greatest stake in many of the conflicts we are facing. Those who study law will have the tools both to understand and to intervene in the action that is certain to come.