CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Csiki, Tamas |
|---|---|
| Title | Radical Right-wing Attempts and Government Responses to Constructing and Securitizing a 'Roma Issue' in Hungary, 2006-2010 |
| Summary | Acts of violence targeting Roma individuals in 2008-2010 raised public attention to an ethnicizing/racist political discourse on behalf of radical right-wing politicians and extreme right-wing actors in Hungary who aimed at constructing a ‘Roma issue’ through political discourse and presenting it as a concern to societal security. Seeking answers to the question, ‘Why (and how) could right-wing political entrepreneurs create a securitized ‘Roma issue’ in Hungary between 2006 and 2010?’, the thesis argues that radical right wing actors successfully used societal resentment and the strong anti-Roma attitudes of Hungarian society to generate political capital, building on prevalent concerns such as criminality, public safety and economic regression. These concerns were presented in a much distorted way through increased scapegoating and radical othering, centralizing ‘Roma otherness’ – used here as an analytical term – as a key motif of radical right wing discourse and setting the scene for securitizing the Roma population of Hungary ‘from whom majority society should be protected’. Through methods of process tracing and discourse analysis the practical results are shown: threat marches of paramilitary organizations such as Magyar Gárda in rural neighborhoods identified as ‘Roma neighborhoods’, physical violence targeting Roma people and a heightened potential of conflict within society. The thesis also offers alternative explanations for the desecuritization process initiated by the government in 2009. However, these alternative explanations still need to be studied and verified beyond the 2006-2010 timeframe to see to what extent desecuritization was successful or government measures only diverted or delayed securitization attempts. |
| Supervisor | András, Pap; Antal, Örkény |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/csiki_tamas.pdf |
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