Lajos Kántor

 Editor’s Note

Korunk, one of the oldest Hungarian reviews, originally founded in 1926, that was forced to cease its appearance between 1940 and 1956, celebrates now the 50th anniversary of its reappearance. The review promoted and continues to promote its Transylvanian and European identity. After difficult periods, enduring various political threats, Korunk entered in 1990 into its third series. The former and the current members of the editorial board share in this issue their memories and thoughts in connection with the review.

Gyöngy Kovács Kiss

 Manifestation Forms of Vienna’s Policy in Transylvania in the 18^th Century

The 18^th century policy of the Habsburgs described by the Hungarian literary memoirs from Transylvania written in the same period is depicted in various manners and in correlation with the stage of the consolidation of Habsburg rule.

These changes concerned primarily those memoir writers who witnessed the changes or were directly involved in them.

It also occurs that during the initial period of adaptation the mirroring of the political consequences of the Habsburg rule is more stressed.

With the extending of the Austrian domination the literary memoirs refer more and more to the realization of the political aims, their impact on society as well as to the reforms concerning public administration, the legal and financial system.

The allusions, references or the concrete description of the political aspects of the installation of Habsburg rule depicted in the memoirs as well as the measures concerning the modifications of the system of institutions were “information of a secondary importance” from the point of view of the author as political analysis and the following up of organizational enactments was not the main purpose of memoir writers.

The paper analyzes the manifestations of the Habsburg policy in Transylvania as mirrored by the 18^th century Hungarian memoir writers from this region.

Imre Péntek

 Solving Conflicts without Renouncement to Academic Rights

The Bolyai Initiative Commission is a widely known organization pressing for the implementation of educational rights of the Hungarian minority at tertiary level in Romania. The article shortly outlines and apprises the actions of the commission aiming for the establishment of three Hungarian language faculties at the Babeş-Bolyai University. Though the tensions between the Hungarian and Romanian faculties are still present the author analyzes the diffe-rent factors contributing to the escalation of the conflict. Finally he argues that the conflict should be solved without the renouncement to the basic educational rights of the Hungarian minority.

Lóránd Rigán

 An Aristocrat in Athens. Democratic Aspects of Plato’s Political Philosophy

According to the traditional interpretation of Platonic political theorizing, there seems to be an inevitable conflict between philosophy, committed to the truth, and democracy, a regime which is based on opinion rather than knowledge. Identifying some democratic motives in the dialogues of Plato (such as accountability, free speech or attending the theater), this essay argues that the author, who is largely viewed as an enemy of the open society, could also be considered a sympathetic critic of Athens, and, therefore, the relationship between philosophy and democracy is not, even in his case, exclusively antagonistic.