ABOUT THIS BOOK

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.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

András Bozóki is Professor at the Department of Political Science, Central European University, Budapest and Vienna (since 1993). His research areas include democratization, regime change, anarchism, political ideologies, and the role of intellectuals. He holds diplomas from Eötvös Loránd University in Law (1983) and Sociology (1985). He received PhD in Political Science at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1992). He is a holder of the Ferenc Erdei Prize (1991) and István Bibó Prize (2009). He was President of the Hungarian Political Science Association (2003-5). He was a recurrent visiting professor at Columbia University. He worked as research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, just as in Florence (Italy), Vienna (Austria), Brighton (UK), Stockholm (Sweden), Wassenaar (The Netherlands), and at the UCLA. He served as Minister of Culture in the Republic of Hungary (2005-6). His recent books: Rolling Transition and the Role of Intellectuals (2022), Embedded Autocracy (2024).

REVIEWS

"...a comprehensive overview and in-depth analysis of the process of roundtable talks... a balanced and well-written contribution to the study of regime change, institution-building and elite behaviour... an essential reading for anyone interested in the process of democratisation in Eastern Europe."

-- Political Studies Review

"...an exceptional volume. Ably and inventively edited by András Bozóki, it consists of ten analytical chapters, a sample of key documents, a chronology of the Hungarian National Roundtable Talks, and forty-five brief yet informative biographies of the principal participants. The exceptional strength of this book is based on four pillars: (1) a comprehensive description of all the important aspects of the roundtable process; (2) ingenious analyses of several aspects (political, social, cultural, and historical) of this process; (3) several innovative theoretical contributions; and (4) a sample of the original transcripts and documents."

-- Slavic Review

"Das Verdienst des Bandes ist es, auch dem nicht-ungarischkundigen Leser detaillierte Kenntnisse über Genese, Verlauf und Ergebnisse der beiden Runden Tische une ihres Internationalen Umfeldes zu vermitteln. Ohne diese Einblicke ist der Systemwechsel in Ungarn und der Charakter der neuen politischen Ordnung des Landes nicht zu verstehen."

-- Südost-Forschungen

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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