Naslov
From "Husakism to "Mečiarism": The National Identity- Building Discourse of the Slovak Left-wing Intellectuals in the 1990s Slovakia

Autori
Đurašković, Stevo

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Poglavlja u knjigama, znanstveni

Knjiga
Thinking through Transitions: Liberal Democracy, Authoritarian Past, and Intellectual History in East Central Europe After 1989

Urednik/ci
Kopeček, Michal ; Wciślik, Piotr

Izdavač
Central European University (CEU Press)

Grad
Budimpešta : New York

Godina
2015

Raspon stranica
525-552

ISBN
978-963-3860-65-4

Ključne riječi
Slovakia ; national identity ; Husakism ; Mečiarism

Sažetak
The chapter demonstrates how the Slovak left- wing nationalist populist Movement for Democratic Slovakia (Ľudová strana—Hnutie za demokratické Slovensko, HZDS) led by Vladimír Mečiar gained power in the early 1990s by appropriating the national identity-building discourse developed by Slovak national- communist intellectuals in the post-1968 “normalization” period. Briefly outlining the basic pre- communist concepts of the Slovak national identity- building process, the chapter shows its appropriation by the communist national identity-building narrative, symbolized at best by the writer Vladimír Mináč, the main cultural ideologist of the Slovak plebeian national communist myth. The analysis shows the intriguing twists of the nascent left-wing populist politics represented by Mečiar and his search, strengthened by the breakup of the Czechoslovak federation in 1993, for a full-blown national identity-building narrative. The suitable historical narrative was eventually found in nationalism distanced from the “dark legacy” of the Slovak war-time fascist state. The regime appropriated the Minačian narrative built on the anti- Czechoslovakist reading of a progressive Slovak left-wing tradition (exemplified mainly by Mináč’s interpretation of the 1944 Slovak National Uprising), which proved to be the most flexible. It successfully delegitimized Mečiar’s political opponents and mobilized the potentially broader popular support that his Movement gained in the 1990s.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Politologija

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