Post Facto Evaluation of the 1868 Act on National Minorities and the Concept of the Political Nation

Abstract

In our study, we attempt to provide a broad picture about the views of those authors who assessed the nationality concept of Ferenc Deák and József Eötvös, and through this analysis we would clarify how diverse approaches of the same issue might exist within the academic literature. We rely on the main relevant sources drafted under different political regimes: from the dualist period, Béla Grünwald, Lajos Mocsáry, and Oszkár Jászi are highlighted; from the era between the two world wars, Gyula Szekfű, Imre Mikó, and Kálmán Molnár will be cited; while the communist approach would be represented by Erzsébet Fazekas and Gábor Kemény G. Apart from the most influential Hungarian scholars, some authors from the neighbouring countries and the mainstream contemporary international literature on the status of national minorities will be also referred to. The core of our research is not the evaluation of the 1868 Act on nationalities or its application itself but the ex-post assessment of the political nation concept provided by Deák and Eötvös, which was a point of reference for the whole contemporary Hungarian political community and which also determined the logic of the 1868 Act on nationalities.