Date of publication: 4 June 2025
The 30th Annual Conference ("Vándorgyűlés") of the Hungarian Political Science Association (HPSA) was held on May 29-30, 2025, hosted this year by the HUN-REN CSS Institute for Political Science. The Annual Conference is the primary forum for the political science community of Hungary, offering an opportunity for reflection, the evaluation of past achievements and the presentation of the latest trends in the field.
The theme of the 2025 conference was "Realignment and Stability in Politics." In Hungary, after a decade of relative stability during the 2010s, the year 2024 disrupted the seemingly frozen party system and brought to the surface previously hidden socio-political realignment processes. On the global scale, by the mid-2020s, the transformation of the international system had also become evident, marked by the rise of new power centers, intensifying interstate competition and the declining significance of international organizations – all pointing toward a global realignment. The HPSA organized its 30th anniversary conference in response to these trends of domestic and global realignment.
This year's conference turned out to be the largest in its history in terms of the number of participants. Over two days, the conference featured 33 panel discussions across 12 sections. Notably, 10 panels were conducted in English, thanks to a significant number of international participants and the high standard of English-language scholarly work in Hungarian political science institutions.
The conference sections were as follows:
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Political Theory and Democracy Theory
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The "Untouchables": Political Leaders and Elites
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Political Institutions
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Political and Electoral Behaviour in an Era of Realignment
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Political Communication
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European Union: Continuity and Realignment
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Public Policy and Governance at a Time of Realignment of Global and Hungarian Political Actors
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In the Shadow of Algorithms: Political Science in the Age of AI
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The Political Economy of Realignment in Times of Fragmentation
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Historical Political Science: Trends, Interpretations, Perspectives
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Tendencies of the Transformation of International Politics
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Open Section
In addition to the panel discussions, the conference hosted the presentation of the 2025 Aurél Kolnai Prize and a keynote lecture by the award recipient. This year's Aurél Kolnai Prize was given to Csaba Molnár, our Institute's Research Fellow, in recognition of his book "The Weight of Weightlessness" ("A súlytalanság súlya"). The event also featured a lecture by Kirk Hawkins, a renowned populism researcher, and concluded with a gala dinner held at Kantinetta Gardens.
We extend our thanks to the organizing committee and section chairs for the smooth execution of the conference, and to the participating researchers for their high-quality presentations!
More information: LINK
