The misuses of manipulation: The failure of transitional justice in post-communist Hungary

Hungary, like most countries in the former Soviet bloc, made numerous attempts to carry out various types of transitional justice, but the process was ultimately unsuccessful. This article argues that transitional justice in Hungary has been used primarily for political manipulation and introduces the main types of such manipulation. A discussion of the two main components of Hungarian transitional justice, retroactive criminal legislation and screening based on secret police files, illustrates the failure of this process. The article concludes by offering some tentative explanations for this failure, finding it in the sharp ideological division within the political elite and in the population's indifference towards issues of transitional justice.     

Shifting linkages in ethnic mobilization: the case of RMDSZ and the Hungarians in Transylvania

The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) has been the most stable actor in the Romanian party system over the past two decades. However, in this article, we argue that beyond this apparent stability, the linkages between RMDSZ and its voters have undergone a gradual, yet significant shift. The ethnic block voting of Transylvanian Hungarians was closely connected to the concept of a self-standing and parallel “Minority Society,” and to the practices of institution building that the minority elites engaged in in the early 1990s. However, since its first participation in the Romanian government in 1996, RMDSZ has gradually departed from this strategy, a phenomenon that was also closely connected to a process of elite change within the organization. The present RMDSZ leadership puts less and less emphasis on policy programs that could reinforce the institutional system of the minority; consequently, it is unable (and unwilling) to organizationally integrate the community activists of the minority society who previously had played a key role in the process of (electoral) mobilization. At the rhetorical level, RMDSZ did not abandon the goal of building a parallel Hungarian minority society, but in its linkages to the Hungarian electorate, clientelistic exchanges have become predominant.     

Coalition politics and accountability

The paper introduces the possibility of coalition government into the theoretical study of political accountability and analyzes the accountability of coalitions as a problem of team production. It is shown that coalition governments can be held accountable in the presence of an electoral alternative. Accountability becomes problematic if it is certain that at least one of the coalition parties stays in power after the elections. Such a coalition (sometimes called a ‘unity government’) can not be given appropriate collective incentives. To incentivate government performance, voters make one coalition party responsible for the outcome. This, however, makes the other coalition party interested in sabotage. The paper analyzes the resulting conflict and characterizes optimal voter strategy.     

A caliber-persistent artery of the gastric wall resulting in fatal haemorrhage

A 12-year-old girl was admitted to hospital with haematemesis. Her family suffered from histidinaemia. Due to her numerous injuries the police suspected a crime. After a short period of clinical treatment she died. Autopsy showed the left ureter to be narrowed and a consecutive abscedens pyelonephritis. Pyloric ulcer caused erosion of a caliber-persistent artery which led to death with haemorrhage. The death had nothing to do with violence. Adequate surgical treatment could have saved the patient's life.