national populism and slovak – hungarian relations in - MEK

Zsolt gál:Argentina on the Danube – Populist EconomicPolicy as the Biggest Enemy of SustainableEconomic Growth 1“I think, then, that the species of oppression by which democraticnations are menaced is unlike anything that ever before existed in theworld … I seek to trace the novel features under which despotism mayappear in the world. The first thing that strikes the observation is aninnumerable multitude of men, all equal and alike, incessantly endeavouringto procure the petty and paltry pleasures with which they gluttheir lives … Above this race of men stands an immense and tutelarypower, which takes upon itself alone to secure their gratifications andto watch over their fate. That power is absolute, minute, regular, provident,and mild. It would be like the authority of a parent if, like thatauthority, its object was to prepare men for manhood; but it seeks, onthe contrary, to keep them in perpetual childhood: it is well content thatthe people should rejoice, provided they think of nothing but rejoicing.For their happiness such a government willingly labours, but it choosesto be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it providesfor their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitatestheir pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry,regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances:what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the troubleof living? Thus it every day renders the exercise of the free agencyof man less useful and less frequent; it circumscribes the will within anarrower range and gradually robs a man of all the uses of himself.”Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America, Volume II, 1840. 2Since the dawn of first modern democracies, great thinkers were aware thatthe rule of the people was not a perfect political system and could degenerateinto tyranny of the majority. The founding fathers of the United Statesof America feared a situation in which – in the words of James Madisonwho would later become the Secretary of State and the fourth President ofthe United States – “the public good is eclipsed by disputes between antagonizedparties” and “measures are too often adopted not according to principlesof justice or with respect to the rights of the minority but based onNational Populism and Slovak – Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006 – 2009. Forum Minority Research Institute Šamorín – Somorja, 2009181