マイノリティであることと民主主義的な価値観の親和性と矛盾: スロヴァキアのハンガリー系にとっての1989年以後

抄録

In Central Europe, the Hungarian minority have been forced to become the national minority in some countries following border changes in the region during the twentieth century—in particular, Slovakia, which counted among its population of 5 million people around 450,000 ethnic Hungarians. The Hungarian minority could not be ignored, especially in Slovak politics, and its party participated in the Slovak government from 1998 to 2006. This demonstrated to the world in general and to Western European countries in particular that Slovakia had become a European democratic country that could accept minority politicians in its government. Ethnic Hungarians had been a minority in (Czecho)Slovakia for at least 70 years, but they became significant political actors only after the end of the repressive communist government, which did not recognize their right to be active or speak as an ethnic minority. Democratization and the related idea of supporting political change from the socialist regime helped promote the establishment of minority solidarity.

This study investigated the effects and limitation of minority solidarity, as influenced by such democratic values as collective ideas as freedom of expression, civic activity, market economy, Western political orientation, and minority rights and protections. This research adopted an anthological approach based on fieldwork in southern Slovakia, where the Hungarian minority lives as a regional majority. The author conducted interviews with community leaders in the southern Slovak society and observed participants’ events and activities.

In late 1980s, the Hungarian minority in Slovakia were able to obtain information directly regarding Hungary, which had reformed its economic and political system earlier. Bolstered by the example of the Hungarian condition, they were able to easily imagine a democratic world, and this drove the Hungarian minority to participate in social movements aimed at changing the regime, not only because they were eager to improve the minority condition but also they had struggled under the less reformed Czechoslovak society. Vaguely proposed democratic values and associated rhetoric attracted more minorities, further establishing minority solidarity. For the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, demands for democratic reforms subsumed ethnic identity, as calls for change and democratic rhetoric were more acceptable to the Slovaks than the protection of minority rights.

However, democratic values alone were not enough to sustain minority solidarity for 30 years. Currently, minority politicians and activists continue to secure rights and protections for ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia; however, doing so conversely undermines the effectiveness of democracy as the voice of the people given the diversity of the population. This has led to tensions in the Hungarian minority community between those desirous of ensuring the purity of the ethnic Hungarian community in a multicultural society and those desirous of living peacefully with Slovak neighbors in their daily lives. Adding to this erosion of solidarity among minorities, the recent transformation of Hungarian politics as the ideal goal of the past for ethnic Hungarians will likely move the current minority to consider new types of minority politics.