Hungary and the European Union

Fragmentation to Integration
György Granasztói

The Second Round
Transformation and the Eastern Enlargement of the EU
László Csaba

Two articles discuss a topic generally approached as an economic or security problem. György Granasztói argues that less easy to grasp elements will be more decisive in obtaining support in Hungary for the accession and confidence in its eventual success. As a historian familiar with the longue durée of mentalities and attitudes he stresses the importance of such factors as national feeling and processes connected with nation and democracy. In a climate of inward-looking attitudes, regional interests and ethnic conflict it is fragmentation that poses the greatest threat to the EU, and it is the modern nation-state that can be the best instrument to guarantee stability. Hungary's own nation-state interests, in turn, can best be protected in a federal Europe with strong central institutions.

The economist László Csaba also warns of a narrowly economic approach. Even in the economy, ownership change and its speed is no longer in the forefront of attention when evaluating the economic performance of post-socialist countries. The exchange rate policy as a regulator appears to be far more important. But Hungary's maturity for accession will be evalued in the broader context of legal stability, the quality of governance, infrastructure and such major factors of the transition as the reform of the welfare state, linked as it is with the reinterpretation of the role of the state. As Csaba sees it the eastern and western halves of Europe are bound together by common interests, something that is increasingly recognized.

The Political Clock

The Social Costs of Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe
László Szamuely

Why the Poor Are Poor
Júlia Szalay

Economists such as Béla Kádár (No. 141) or László Csaba in this issue are optimistic about Hungary's chances of catching up with the West. Some social scientists, however, are alarmed by the high social and economic costs of the changeover. László Szamuely provides a comparative survey of the negative phenomena that accompany systemic change in the post-socialist countries. He examines unemployment, the growth of poverty and other factors which determine or indicate working and living conditions, health and social status. In his conclusion he recommends utmost caution in implementing reforms in welfare, access to health and social services being the sole remaining mainstay of the socially marginalized.

12 per cent of the population now belong to the "very poor" who spend less than half of the average of those in the 31.9 percent under the poverty line. Júlia Szalai argues that the disadvantages of this group go back to the fault-lines of pre-war society and were not eliminated under socialism. The agrarian-proletariat was herded into socialist large-scale industry, which proved to be a trap. With neither the skills nor the experience of landed peasants or of the petty entrepreneurs of the erstwhile second economy they now drift from one unsecure and underpaid job to another, or end up in the queues of soup kitchens.

Close-Up

Mátyás Rákosi - Portrait of a Tyrant (Árpád Pünkösti)
Gábor Murányi

"You Are Not a Primate Here" - The Mindszenty Trial
Árpád Pünkösti

The Churches, Religion, and Politics after 1989
János Dobszay

No biography of Mátyás Rákosi has appeared so far. His name is indelibly linked with the ruthless terror of the secret police, the show trials and the nauseating personality cult of pre-1956 Hungary. As Gábor Murányi shows in his review, Árpád Pünkösti's collection of oral history morsels and clippings of various documents, of which two volumes have already appeared, is a far cry from being a scholarly work, it, however vividly recalls the chilling routine of terror. The chapter on the trial of Cardinal József Mindszenty, Prince-Primate of Hungary, gives an inside view of the machinery of this show trial, the climax of Rákosi's show-down with the Churches-- which, albeit with more subtle methods, continued under János Kádár's soft dictatorship.

János Dobszay examines the difficult legacy the years of terror and state interference left for both the Churches and the faithful, as well as the new challenges: new trends in religiosity, new faiths and new conflicts connected with the return of Church property, rivalry of the parties etc.

History

The Migration and Landtaking of the Magyars
András Róna-Tas

The Sarmatian Connection
János Makkay

In a brief article Ákos Róna-Tas sums up the latest in scholarship as regards the history of early Magyars, their origins, their language and the migration route. János Makkay, on the other hand, presents a hypothesis with a twist, and a fascinating story. Motifs as distant as those from the Arthurian legends, the Nibelungenlied or the Hungarian Saint Ladislas Legend may have a common, very early Iranian source. The Iranian influence is further corroborated by archeological evidence such as e.g. the exquisite dragon standards depicted on Trajan's and Marcus Aurelius's columns in Rome, on the Chester tombstone of a Sarmatian/Alanian warrior, or unearthed in Transylvania.