Ábel Bede (UCL) - 2025-26 Students
abel.bede.25@ucl.ac.uk

Parallel Dreams of Freedom: Oppositions and Political Subcultures in Late Socialist Hungary

‘Parallel Dreams of Freedom’ examines the relationship between the two primary opposition groups in 1970s-1980s socialist Hungary: the Democratic Opposition, consisting of liberal intellectuals, and the Folkish Opposition, a group of conservative writers. The thesis will highlight the differences between the two groups’ political philosophy, their conceptions of marginalisation, their poetry, art, and literature, and their ways of life. The thesis will explore the two milieus the most influential politicians of the Hungarian democratic transition emerged from, and examine whether their conceptions of democracy were ever compatible. Innovatively interpreting the opposition groups as subcultures rooted in, and influencing, wider currents in Hungarian politics, my thesis will shed new light on the origins of Hungarian illiberalism, which has influenced authoritarianism globally.

Principal supervisor: Prof. Kristin Roth-Ey