Századok – 2017

2017 / 4. szám - KÖZLEMÉNYEK - Szalai Miklós: A nemzeti liberalizmustól a keresztény újkonzervativizmusig: Asbóth János gondolkodói pályájához

A NEMZETI LIBERALIZMUSTÓL A KERESZTÉNY ÚJKONZERVATIVIZMUSIG 878

FROM NATIONAL LIBERALISM TO CHRISTIAN NEW CONSERVATISM: THE INTELLECTUAL CAREER OF JÁNOS ASBÓTH

by Miklós Szalai

SUMMARY

János Asbóth is a strange and lonely figure in post-1867 Hungarian political thinking. He started his publicistic career in the Deák Party as a spokesman of the 1867 version of national liberalism. Disillusioned with Gyula Andrássy, he later endorsed the efforts of Pál Sennyey to establish a conservative party, and set about elaborating a conservative political theory centered on the Hungarian nation state and organic constitutional evolution. After the failure of Sennyey’s attempt, Asbóth continued his activity in the Liberal Party for some time, driven not by mere opportunism, but by the perceived positive features of Kálmán Tisza’s conception of state building . By the end of his career, however, the struggles triggered by the separation of state and church and the social problems caused by nascent Hungarian capitalism redirected Asbóth away from national liberalism towards a new conservatism of a specially Christian and social nature.