Contribution short abstract:

This talk offers a perspective on how critique of the state can end up in being more than complicit. Following the rise of a charity in Hungary, I demonstrate how critique can become an integral part of statecraft. I locate the sign for hope in the undetermined nature of political atmospheres.

Contribution long abstract:

In this talk, I offer a perspective on how a critical stance towards the state can end up in being even more than complicit. Based on my longterm ethnographic engagement in the region, I follow the rise of a Roman Catholic charity in post-socialist countries. The organization started with a critique of gaps in state care for the most marginalized. However, this critique faded when the organization more and more merged in activities and norms with the nation state in Hungary. This merging is the result of unforeseen and maybe unwanted overlapping norms and ideals. In these emerging forms the NGO plays a pivotal role through intervention in local tensions, which also reshapes the contours of the state by providing care. Meanwhile their former critique of the state has transformed to become an integral part of statecraft. Describing this development has two aims. First, since civil rights approaches largely failed to improve the situation of the most marginalized sections of the population, new patron client relations sometimes can be the only option. This presents a situation in which both, local residents but also researchers, might feel stucked, practically and theoretically. Avoiding an all too simple logic and totalizing interpretation, I therefore secondly offer an analysis of the changing role of critique of the state in this process. The sign of hope, I have to offer is to demonstrate that these situations are always fluid and open.