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The value systems of liberals and conservatives in Hungary, 1830–1848*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Iván Zoltán Dénes
Affiliation:
Institute of Philosophy, Budapest

Abstract

The challenge of Joseph II's enlightened absolutist reforms in the 1780s imposed upon the Hungarian political opinion the painful dilemma of choosing between ‘fatherland’ and ‘progress’, between ‘nation’ and ‘civilization’, between national identity and modernization. These responses created the conceptual basis for the emergence of the modern Hungarian nation. The following characterizes the Hungarian liberals' and conservatives' intellectual horizons and value systems between 1830 and 1848. These two schools represent at least two different modernization strategies, and at least two concepts of national character and two perceptions of adversaries. The ideas here discussed concern the very bases of social organization and the nature and legitimacy of the state; they reveal how Hungarians conceived of the nation; how they saw foreign countries and the European equilibrium; how they perceived themselves and their adversaries, and how they envisaged their past and future.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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14 ‘False realism’ was a term used by István Bibó (1911–79). See Bibó, , Misère des petits états, pp. 133209, esp. pp. 165–9Google Scholar; pp. 395–442, esp. pp. 426–7.

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21 The people of the east.

22 Around the Hungarian Academy.

23 CWAD, pp. 39–40, 46–52, 68–72; Count Antal Szécsen, Nemzetiség (Nationality), Világ (Light, L) 27 08 1842Google Scholar; idem, Nemzetesítési törekvéink s a szláv mozgalmak (Our nationality and the Slavic movements), L, 7 Jan. 1943; Anon. [Emil Dessewffy]: Parlagi eszmék, igénytelen nézetek, szerénytelen tervek a függő kérdések s az ország gyűlése körül (Uncouth ideas, simplistic views, immodest plans regarding the problematic questions and the diet) (Pest, 1843), pp. 22–8Google Scholar.

24 Count János Majláth, Gr[óf] Dessewffy Aurél – vágtatási és konzervatív elvek gyökérkülönbsége (Count Aurél Dessewffy – The basic difference between the radical and conservative principles). Nemzeti Újság (National Journal, NJ), 8 02 1843Google Scholar; X.U. [ = Sándor Lipthay], Az aranybulla s ellene forralt demokratai küzdelmek (The Golden Bull [of 1222] and the subversive activity of the democrats against it), NJ, 3 May 1843; District diary, 1843/44, VI, 184–95; anon. [Emil Dessewffy], Legyünk őszinték (Let's be honest), II, Budapesti Híradó (Budapest News, BN) 8 May, 1846; NSZLA, Department of Manuscript, Analecta 11085. Anon. [Emil Dessewffy], Konzervatív pártprogram (Platform of the Conservative party). Cf. The polemics fcv of Széchenyi and Kossuth, II, 682–832. See also Diary of the upper house of the 1847/48 diet, pp. 7–132.

25 Count Aurél Dessewffy, Nyilatkozat és igazolás (Statement and apology), L, 24 11 1841Google Scholar. Cf. Kossuth, Lajos, Példa külföldről (An example from abroad), PJ, 8 12, 1841Google Scholar. See also Moore, Barrington Jr, The social origins of dictatorship and democracy. Lord and peasant in the making of the modern world (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1979), pp. 339Google Scholar.

26 F[erenc] K[állay], Jellemrajzok az alkotmányos élet s kormányrendszerek köréből (Character sketches from constitutional life and government systems), I, England I–II, France I–II, NJ, 7, 9, 11, 12 Sept. 1845; idem, A porosz liberálisok (Prussian liberals), NJ, 9 Oct. 1845; idem, Pauperismus. I–II, NJ, 10, 12 March 1846; idem, A dolgozó néposztály állapota Angliában jelen társadalmi állásunkhoz intőleg felmutatva (Consequences of the condition of the working classes in England in view of our social state), I–II, NJ, 30 Apr., 4 May 1847. Cf. Anon. [Count Antal Szécsen], Honoráciorok (Non-noble intellectuals), I–II, BN, 12, 15 Aug. 1845; Kállay's, Ferenc sources: Ioannes Limnaeus, Notitia regni Franciae (2 vols., Argentor [ = Strasbourg], 1655)Google Scholar; Hallam, Henry, View of the state of Europe during the middle ages (2 vols., London, 1818)Google Scholar: The constitutional history of England (2 vols., London, 1827)Google Scholar; Jarcke, Carolus Ernestus, Commentatio de summis principiis juris Romani (Göttingen, 1822)Google Scholar; Bülau, Friedrich, Encyclopädie der Staatswissenschaften (Leipzig, 1832)Google Scholar; idem, Darstellung der europäischen Verfassungen in den seit 1828 darin vorgegangenen Veränderungen (Leipzig, 1841); Bülow-Cummerow, , Die europäischen Staaten nach ihren innern und äussern politischen Verhältnissen (Altona, 1845)Google Scholar; Raynouard, M., Histoire du droit municipal en France, sous la domination Romaine et sous les trois dynasties (2 vols., Paris, 1829)Google Scholar; Mémoires du Chancelier Pasquier, 1789–1820 (6 vols., éd. d'Audiffret-Pasquier, M. Le due, Paris, 18931894)Google Scholar; Wachsmuth, Wilhelm, Geschichte der europäischen Staaten, 6 vols. Geschichte Frankreichs im Revolutionszeitalter (Hamburg, 1844)Google Scholar.

27 Kállay, Ferenc, A Szózat kritikai bírálatja (A critique of the address) (Pest, 1843)Google Scholar; Északamerikai állapotok (The situation in North America), I–II, NJ, 21, 23 Oct. 1845. His main source: von Raumer, Friedrich, Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika, I–II (Leipzig, 1845)Google Scholar. The criticized liberal works: Bölöni, Sándor Farkas, Utazás Észak-Amerikában (A journey in North America) (Kolozsvár, 1834)Google Scholar; Julius, Nikolaus Heinrich, Nordamerikas sittliche Zustände nach eigenen Anschauungen in den Jahren 1834, 1835 und 1836 (2 vols., Leipzig, 1839)Google Scholar; de Tocqueville, Alexis, De la démocratie en Amérique (3 vols., Bruxelles, 18371840)Google Scholar; its excellent and complete Hungarian translation: Tocqueville, Elek, A demokrácia Amerikában (4 vols., tr. by Fábián, Gábor, Buda, 18411843)Google Scholar. Cf. Bryce, James, The American commonwealth (2 vols., New York, 1911)Google Scholar; Becker, Carl L., The Declaration of Independence. A study in the history of political ideas (New York, 1970)Google Scholar; Bailyn, Bernard, The ideological origins of the American Revolution (Cambridge, Massachusetts–London, 1967)Google Scholar; Ekirch, Arthur A. Jr, The decline of American liberalism (New York, 1980)Google Scholar; Appleby, New social order.

28 I reconstructed the above position from the writings of Emil Dessewffy, Antal Szécsen, Sándor Lipthay and Ferenc Kállay. See more details in Dénes, Conservatives; idem, Protection of privilege.

29 A systematic analysis of the liberals' image of foreign countries is still to be done. The reconstruction attempted in this paper is based first of all on the analysis of articles, essays and treatises published in the Pest Journal, Erdélyi Híradó (Transylvanian News) and Jelenkor (Our Time), besides the relevant pamphlets, collections of political writings (e.g. Magyar Szózatok [Hungarian addresses] published in Hamburg in 1847 and the above-mentioned Observer) and the discussions in the diet. Lack of space prevents the listing of the sources in detail. For the image of America see Szabad, György, Kossuth on the political system of the United States of America in Études historiques hongroises (2 vols., Budapest, 1975), I, 501–13Google Scholar; Vörös, Károly, The image of America in Hungarian mass culture in the nineteenth century, in Études historiques hongroises (3 vols., Budapest, 1985), II, 647–62Google Scholar. Cf. Jedlicki, Jerzy, ‘The image of America in Poland, 1776–1945’, Reviews in American History (12 1986), pp. 669–86Google Scholar.

30 Szabad, György, Hungarian political trends between the revolution and the compromise (1849–1867) (Budapest, 1977)Google Scholar. Cf. Evans, Robert J. W., ‘Hungary and the Habsburg monarchy 1849–1867: a study in perceptions’, Études danubiennes (1986/1991), pp. 1839Google Scholar.

31 Szekfű, Gyula, Három nemzedék. Egy hanyatló kor története (Three generations. The history of a declining era, Budapest, 1920)Google Scholar; idem, A tizenkilencedik és huszadik század (the 19th and 20th centuries), in Bálint Hóman-Gyula Szekfű, Magyar történet (A history of Hungary) (7 vols., Budapest, no date). Cf. Dénes, Iván Zoltán, A “realitás” illúziója. A historikus Szekfű Gyula pályafordulója (The illusion of “realism”. The turn of Gyula Szekfű's career) (Budapest, 1976)Google Scholar; Barany, George, ‘Three generations: Szekfű's Széchenyi portrait’, East European Quarterly, XVIII (2) (1984), 143153Google Scholar. See also Bibó, , Misère des petits états, pp. 393442Google Scholar.