{"id":1950,"date":"2010-05-10T10:16:01","date_gmt":"2010-05-10T10:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archive.iask.hu\/?p=1950"},"modified":"2017-12-08T10:17:15","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T10:17:15","slug":"tunnel-end-light-crisis-transition-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.iask.hu\/en\/the-tunnel-at-the-end-of-the-light-the-crisis-of-transition-in-hungary\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tunnel at the End of the Light: The Crisis of Transition in Hungary"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFTER ACCESSION: STRAYING INTO THE LABYRINTHS OF THE WORLD<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in 1990 Hungary was seen as the most promising east of the Elba. After the annus\u00a0mirabilis of 1989 the country was expected to set an example for the other countries in\u00a0transition in the entire region of former Soviet satellites. After nearly two decades, the\u00a0question has been sharply raised how did Hungarians manage to make such a mess of it all?\u00a0Why Hungarians failed to retain and capitalize on the initial advantage and positive evaluation\u00a0that it had at the outset? This is also the question asked by Publius Hungaricus in the columns\u00a0of Index1, by intellectuals, students, workers and politicians throughout the country and, not\u00a0only in Hungary. Outside its borders in London or Brussels, and in the new member states\u00a0that Hungarians once spoke patronisingly about (like Slovakia, Romania and even in EU\u00a0candidate Croatia), the same question is being raised.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am concerned for Hungary,\u201d said John Palmer,2 in a conversation in the summer of 2006,\u00a0months before the autumn riots. \u201cWhat\u2019s happened to all of you?\u201d asked Zarko Puhovski,3 with honest curiosity and sympathy at the Savaria International Summer University in the\u00a0summer of 2007. The list of examples could be extended, but up until now, no clear answer to\u00a0these questions have been forthcoming, and as long as there is no answer \u2026 there is no way\u00a0out.<\/p>\n

The deterioration itself was neither sudden nor unexpected \u2013 to be sure, there were and are\u00a0people who sounded the alarm, but their voices were not strong enough and did not crystallize\u00a0into a coherent critique or lead to wider social discourse in search of solutions. This is\u00a0primarily a symptom of the weakness of civil society and democracy.<\/p>\n

Our assumption is that not only the economy but the political class and society are facing severe crises which need to be addressed. Without an adequate diagnosis it is difficult to prescribe the necessary therapy. This therapy is not going to be an easy cure. Complex, comprehensive social, economic and political problems, which swell into a crisis, are unlikely to succumb to charlatan tricks or magic spells. No one can deny that Hungarian society made a poor showing in the first four years of EU membership. The reasons for the series of failures and the accompanying bad conscience have never been systematically identified. The institutional structures and the service-providing system of the one time party state have been left, essentially intact or undergone only cosmetic surgery to make them fit the style of the new era. In so far as they were subjected to radical reform, by one or another of the new governments, this took the form of pseudo-reforms or dictatorship without consensus or social support. The outcome was either a rapid regression to the original state of affairs or a scene of raging reform which also caused the present cluster of pathological symptoms.<\/p>\n

Read more on the\u00a0Institute for Social and European Studies website.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFTER ACCESSION: STRAYING INTO THE LABYRINTHS OF THE WORLD Back in 1990 Hungary was seen as the most promising east of the Elba. After the annus\u00a0mirabilis of 1989 the country was expected to set an example for the other countries in\u00a0transition in the entire region of former Soviet satellites. 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