System Changes, Export-oriented Growth and Women in Hungary

Abstract

DURING THE PERIOD OF STATE SOCIALISM Hungary was often called the 'happiest barrack' of the Soviet bloc, thanks to the relative flexibility of the political regime and comparatively high standard of living. A series of cautious economic and political reforms introduced from the 1960s made the system less rigid than most of its Eastern European counterparts. Political life was relatively open and in the economy there was a space for private initiatives and contacts with non-socialist economies as well. In the late 1980s a rather disorganised and 'watered-down' version of state socialism gave way to sweeping political changes. In principle Hungary's chances for a smooth transformation were rather good. The systemic changes, however, were followed by a major economic recession and political insecurities. After decades of political stability cemented by a rigid one-party system, free parliamentary elections led to a new government each time, each with rather different ideological and political backgrounds. In 1990 a centre-right conservative coalition took power, led by the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF). After the 1994 elections the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP, the reformed successor of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party), and its former opposition, the Party of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), formed a socialist-liberal coalition. In 1998 the Young Democrats-Hungarian Civic Party (FIDESZ-MPP), in coalition with the Independent Smallholders Party (FKGP) and the vestiges of the MDF, created a new right-wing coalition.