The Development Path of the Hungarian Public Administration from the Regime Change to the New Era of Crises

Abstract

The Hungarian public administration development path can be displayed in four stages: “democratisation” from 1990 until 1998, the beginning year of the EU accession negotiations; “Europeanisation” as preparing for EU accession until 2004, when Hungary became full member of the EU together with 9 other countries. The next phase is the unsuccessful “quest for efficiency” until 2010, including 2008, when the Hungarian state budget faced insolvency and turned to the IMF for a standby loan. Finally, in 2010 the era of continual crisis management started with the financial and economic crisis, the migrant crisis, the Covid–19, and the war in Ukraine.