Gáspár Miklós Tamás

Gáspár Miklós Tamás was born in today's Cluj, Romania. He emigrated to Budapest, Hungary, in 1978, after being harassed by the Securitate.^[2][3][4] His mother was Jewish and escaped being deported to Auschwitz because she was imprisoned for being a communist.^[5] As a dissident at the end of the state socialist period, he was initially a libertarian socialist. While in contact with libertarian authors, his perspective was distinct from the Budapest School, a major school of thought in Hungarian Neo-Marxism. He was also a member of the informal group called the "democratic opposition".^{[citation needed]}

From 1986 to 1988, he taught in the U.S., Britain, and France, and also continued his studies at Oxford University. At the beginning of the post-socialist era in 1989, he became committed to a liberal program, and was a leader of the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ).^[6] As a representative of the party, he was a member of the Hungarian Parliament from 1989 to 1994,^[7] and served the party's president through 1994, departing the party in 2000. He was a prominent democratic opponent of the Hungarian government under János Kádár^[8] and Viktor Orbán.^[9] He became the Green Left's president in 2010.^[10]

Tamás was known for developing the concept of post-fascism^[9] and the term ethnicism. In his words,

Post-fascism finds its niche easily in the new world of global capitalism without upsetting the dominant political forms of electoral democracy and representative government. It does what I consider to be central to all varieties of fascism, including the post-totalitarian version. Sans Führer, sans one-party rule, sans SA or SS, post-fascism reverses the Enlightenment tendency to assimilate citizenship to the human condition.

Tamás died on 15 January 2023, at the age of 74.^[11]

He described himself as a "conservative anarchist"^[12] and a Marxist.^[9]

Books in English

• Tamás, Gáspar Miklós (2011). Innocent Power. Stuttgart, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag. ISBN 9783775728621.

Books in French

• Tamás, Gáspar Miklós (1985). L'Oeil et la main: Introduction à la politique [The Eye and the Hand: Introduction to Politics] (in French). Geneva, Switzerland: Éditions Noir. OCLC 33315996.

Books in German

• Tamás, Gáspar Miklós (2015). Kommunismus nach 1989: Beiträge zu Klassentheorie, Realsozialismus, Osteuropa [Communism after 1989: Contributions to Class Theory, Real Socialism, Eastern Europe] (in German). Vienna, Austria: Mandelbaum Verlag. ISBN 9783854766414.

Books in Hungarian

• Tamás, Gáspar Miklós (1975). A teória esélyei: Esszék, bírálatok [The Prospects for Theory: Essays and Reviews] (in Hungarian). Bucharest, Romania: Kriterion. OCLC 909543438.
• Tamás, Gáspar Miklós (1994). Másvilág: Politikai esszék [Another World: Political Essays] (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Új Mandátum. ISBN 9789637476204.
• Tamás, Gáspar Miklós (1999). Törzsi fogalmak [Tribal Concepts] (in Hungarian). Vol. I–II. Budapest, Hungary: Atlantisz. ISBN 9789639165267.
• Tamás, Gáspár Miklós (2021) Antitézis [Antithesis] (in Hungarian). Budapest, Hungary: Pesti Kalligram. ISBN 9789634682035

• Some of his lectures: 1, 2, 3, 4,5, 6, 7
• Some of his speeches: 1, 2
• Central European University: Academic Profile of Gáspár Miklós Tamás
• "Hatred and Betrayal." The Guardian, 9 May 2007.
• "Hungary: Where We Went Wrong." Interview with Chris Harman. International Socialism, 24 June 2009.
• "The Left and Marxism in Eastern Europe: An Interview with Gáspár Miklós Tamás." Interview with Imre Szeman. Mediations: Journal of the Marxist Literary Group, volume 24, number 2, Spring 2009.
• "On Post-Fascism." Boston Review, Summer 2000.
• "Socialism and Freedom." Jacobin, 5.12.2015.
• "Telling the Truth about Class." Socialist Register vol. 42, 2006.
• "Words from Budapest." New Left Review 80, March–April 2013.