national populism and slovak – hungarian relations in - MEK

Approaching National Populismnation with other ‘thin’ ideologies (e.g. nationalism) or more complex onessuch as socialism or conservatism. Due to its restricted class of core concepts,populism is not what one would refer to as a practical ideology capableof providing a complex political programme for contemporary polities(should one choose to address Blokker’s doubts above).Even though for some it may come as a bit of disappointment to definepopulism as ‘merely’ ideology, not very dominant one into the bargain, theresearch undertaken within this school, however scant so far, seems to suggestnoteworthy advantages. For example, it naturally expects populist ideologyto be identified in party messages in a combination with elements ofother ideologies. Thus, in term of analysis, it does away with both a needto spot ‘pure’ and ‘true’ populist parties and with a drive to cumulate allpossible characteristics of populist politics under one heading.In practical terms, treating populism as a distinct ideology means tryingto recognise the presence of its core concepts in the messages of partiesand leaders; identifying the manifold forms those concepts may assume; andfinally, disentangling their interplay with components of other ideologiespresent in those messages.Put otherwise, identification of the core concepts facilitates analyticaltreatment of diversity within populism. Variety which the core conceptsthemselves may manifest gives a promise of successfully accounting for anarray of real-life cases of populism. While all ‘populisms’ have to be similarin sharing the four basic concepts, they may (and indeed will) differ intheir manifestations and relative weight. Populist arguments are at varianceas to how they define the people and elite (who belongs to it, who doesnot, and why so) and what is the exact form of their antagonistic relationship(how elites may harm people). Being far from complete, the list ofpossible distinctions should also include the means to be used to restore theprimacy of people in the political realm. All of above metamorphoses ofthe populist core concepts are to be found in ‘real-life populisms’ combinedwith ideological elements of other ideologies, into the bargain.Even though better conceptualizations may arise in times to come, thisone seems to be particularly well equipped for carrying on case and comparativestudies needed to cope with the proliferation of ‘populisms’ inpost-Communist world. 5As we have seen, the populist radical right proved to be too exclusivea concept to embrace the empirical wealth of post-Communist national populismin Slovakia. As it will be showed later, populism, in turn, is too inclusiveto meet the task. 6 Therefore, the next territory to be explored is thatof nationalism.National Populism and Slovak – Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006 – 2009. Forum Minority Research Institute Šamorín – Somorja, 200919