This is the first book in English which provides comprehensive analysis and documentary history on the Roundtable talks, the major event of the “negotiated revolution” of Hungary. These negotiations occurred during the summer months of 1989 between the representatives of the Communist Party, the Opposition Roundtable, and the so-called Third Side (which brought some pro-Communist satellite organizations together).
The authors offer much more than just a detailed account on the negotiations: they also put the process of constitutional revolution into a comparative and historical perspective. They believe that the Roundtable Talks amounted to much more than just a sideshow and in fact they constituted the hub of the revolutionary transformation.
András Bozóki is Professor at the Department of Political Science at the Central European University. His main fields of research include democratization, de-democratization, political regimes, ideologies, Central European politics, and the role of intellectuals
List of Contributors
List of Appendices and Tables
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction (by András Bozóki)
PART ONE: ANALYTICAL APPROACHES
1. The Politics of the Roundtable Talks
Zoltán Ripp: Unity and Division: The Opposition Roundtable and Its Relationship to the
Communist Party
Melinda Kalmár: From ‘Model Change’ to Regime Change: The Metamorphosis of the MSZMP’s Tactics in the Democratic Transition
András Bozóki and Gergely Karácsony: The Making of a Political Elite: Participants in the
Hungarian Roundtable Talks of 1989
2. The Institution-building Process
Rudolf L. Tőkés: Institution-building in Hungary: Analytical Issues and Constitutional Models,
1989–90
Ádám Masát: Beyond the One-party System: The Debate on the “Party-Law”
John W. Schiemann: The Negotiated Origins of the Electoral System
3. Roundtable Talks in Context: Historical and Comparative Analyses
Alan Renwick: The Role of Non-elite Forces in Hungary's Negotiated Revolution
János M Rainer: Regime Change and the Tradition of 1956
Andrew Arato: The Roundtables, Democratic Institutions and the Problem of Justice
Csaba Békés: Back to Europe: The International Background of the Political Transition in
Hungary, 1988–90
PART TWO: KEY DOCUMENTS
András Bozóki and Zoltán Ripp: Introduction to the Documents
1. Proclamation of the Independent Lawyers' Forum to the Organizations of the Opposition (March 15, 1989)
2. Proposal of the Opposition Roundtable to the Central Committee of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party, April 19th, 1989
3. Agreement on the Commencement of National Roundtable Talks (June 10th, 1989 )
4. Opening Plenary Meeting of the National Roundtable Talks ( June 13th, 1989)
5. Agreement among Members of the National Roundtable on the Thematic Structure and Schedule of the Talks (June 21st, 1989)
6. Plenary Session of the Opposition Roundtable Talks (June 21st, 1989)
7. Plenary Session of the National Roundtable Talks (September 18th., 1989)
8. Agreement Concluding the Political Reconciliation Talks June 13th. to September 18th, 1989 (September 18th, 1989)
Chronology of the Hungarian Roundtable Talks January 1989–April 1990 (by Erzsébet Ripp)
Biographies of the Key Participants (by András Bozóki)
Selected Bibliography
Index
