A politika, mint politikai probléma. Kis János és Schlett István a politika autonómiájáról

Political realism claims that politics can be understood only on its own terms. Realist political theory attempts to have the autonomy of politics recognized and to emancipate politics from the authority of other domains such as ethics, economy or aesthetics. After the democratic transition, Hungarian political theory has claimed autonomy of politics as opposed to technocratic and other deterministic approaches. The study discusses two texts of Hungarian political theory which, differing from the mainstream, conceived the problem of the autonomy of politics in the context of the relationship between politics and morality. János Kis’ ‘Politics as a Moral Problem’ and István Schlett’s answer to that book, ‘Morality as a Political Problem’ represent the two main standpoints in the realist – moralist debate described by contemporary realist theory, however, neither of them fi ts into those positions perfectly. The differences analysed in this article emerge regarding the autonomy of politics. As a conclusion, it is supposed that the concept of the autonomy of politics cannot account for a realist approach to politics.