Hungary's U-Turn

János Kornai

Corvinus Economics Working Papers (CEWP) from Corvinus University of Budapest

Abstract: For two decades Hungary, like the other Eastern European countries, followed a general policy of establishing and strengthening the institutions of democracy, rule of law, and a market economy based on private property. However, since the elections of 2010, when Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party came to power, Hungary has made a dramatic U-turn. This article investigates the different spheres of society: political institutions, the rule of law, and the influence of state and market on one another, as well as the world of ideology (education, science and art), and describes the U-turn’s implications for these fields and the effect it has on the life of people. It argues against the frequent misunderstandings in the interpretation and evaluation of the Hungarian situation, pointing out some typical intellectual fallacies. It draws attention to the dangers of strengthening nationalism, and to the ambivalence evident in Hungarian foreign policy, and looks into the relationship between Hungary and the Western world, particularly the European Union. Finally, it outlines the possible scenarios resulting from future developments in the Hungarian situation.

JEL-codes: P14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pke and nep-tra
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://unipub.lib.uni-corvinus.hu/2173/ original version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Hungary’S U-Turn (2015)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cvh:coecwp:2015/21

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Corvinus Economics Working Papers (CEWP) from Corvinus University of Budapest 1093 Budapest, Fõvám tér 8.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Adam Hoffmann ().