Category: Current

The  2008  financial  crisis  was  a  major  event,  equivalent  in  its  initial scope – if not its duration – to the Great Depression of the 1930s. At the time, many commentators said that we were witnessing a crisis of capitalism, proof that the free market system was inherently unstable. These

WHY DID HUNGARY NEED A NEW CONSTITUTION? The regime change from communism took place in terms of constitutional law via the modification of the old communist Constitution, that is the 20th Act of 1949, and by the adoption of a few cornerstone laws (like the Act on the Constitutional Court).

Thirty years ago Hungary, like all of socialist Eastern and Central Europe and of course the Soviet republics, buzzed with excellent political jokes. When acquaintances met, the conversation would inevitably begin with “Have you heard the latest political anecdote?” The jokes were spontaneously invented by ordinary people, they grew out

Hungary’s Elections Will Be Fair and Legitimate Winning the responsibility of government is not dependent on the new rules but is up to the fair judgement of the electorate It has become a cliché to say that relations between opposing players of the political spectrum in Hungary are simply awful.

Our knowledge of medieval wall painting in Transylvania has expanded significantly over the last two decades. The region, which in the Middle Ages was an integral part of the Kingdom of Hungary (and now is part of Romania), boasts an extremely rich heritage in this field. Mural decorations from the

Radical evil is the willing embrace of monstrous crimes either for their own sake or to advance a cause that allegedly justifies murder and terror. It should be a rare and almost exotic sin, confined to the poetry of Milton or the novels of Dostoevsky. Yet as several articles in

Churchill is often quoted on democracy as being the least bad of all forms of government. In other words, democracy is bad, but we know nothing better. This is far too general. The death of Socrates offers a fine illustration of how democracy operated in Athens, its famous cradle. He

The theme provides us with a great opportunity to examine how constitutional values have brought our countries to where they are today; and, how those values can take us to where we want to go. In large part, this is a metaphysical topic, as the drafting of a constitution is

On 15 September 2008 the venerable Wall Street bank, Lehman Brothers, collapsed and its remains fell into the hands of Barclays and Nomura. Those who hoped at the time that the collapse would stop the wave of crises could not have been more wrong. Its impact on the US economy

More than 60 years ago the British socialist politician Aneurin Bevan, founder of Britain’s National Health Service, shocked the British political classes by describing Conservatives as “lower than vermin”. Throughout his life, the phrase, for which he refused to apologise, was repeated in virtually every assessment of his career and