Openness and Closedness – Culture and Science in Hungary and the Soviet Bloc after Helsinki Conference 12 June 2019, Institute of Political History, Budapest 1 Attila Antal 1 The (Re)Institutionalization of Hungarian Political Science 2 (Transcript of lecture, without citations and references) 30 years after the Eastern European transitions it is high time to reappraise the social and political impact of the regime changes. This paper is about how the political science in Hungary institutionalized in 1970s and 1980s. It would be exaggerated to say that politics science or other social sciences in general had a very important role in transition, but at the same time they contributed to creating a regime change atmosphere. The political science in Hungary has been subordinated to politics since the 1980s, that is why despite of adaption of Western European standards it has not developed any critical approaches. The Hungarian political science was integrated as planned into the Socialist-Communist framework from the second half of the 1970s, on the other hand due to the weakening system the scientific elite from other areas of social science constantly widened the boundaries of the system and opened up opportunities for the application of Western political science in Hungary. Political processes overtook political science, and this distance increased after the regime change. I am convinced since the 1970s that political science has been reorganized. Antecedents: Early Political Science before World War II Political science is one of the youngest social sciences, its emergence and institutionalization begun in 20 th century. American Political Science Association (APSA), which is the largest institution in the field of world political science, established in 1903. The political science is tied to other disciplines: philosophy, economics, sociology and law. This is especially true for the Hungarian situation, where the various traditions of political thinking in the 19th century, linked to dualism and the 20th century, were the foundations for reorganization of political science form 1970s. 1 Attila Antal (1985) is holding a PhD in political science. He is a senior lecturer at Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Law Institute of Political Science (Budapest, Hungary). He is a coordinator at the Social Theory Research Group at Institute of Political History. He is doing his contemporary research in political theory of populism, social and critical theory, theory of democracy, green political thought, constitutionalism, and political history. Email: antal.attila@ajk.elte.hu | Web: http://www.antalattila.hu 2 A transcript of lecture held at Openness and Closedness – Culture and Science in Hungary and the Soviet Bloc after Helsinki Conference, 12 June 2019 organized by Institute of Political History, Budapest. http://polhist.hu/programok2/openness-and-closedness-culture-and-science-in-hungary-and-the-soviet- bloc-after-helsinki/