Central East European Countries Research Articles

Main Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in the Southeast European Countries

The growth of foreign direct investments (FDI) in the world has been significant in recent years. Between 1990 and 2000 worldwide FDI inflows increased more than five times, and since 2000 they have declined. During the period of FDI expansion, growth was especially strong from 1997 onward. However, most of the FDI transactions were between the developed countries. The distribution of FDI is unequal and less-developing countries face difficulties in attracting FDI. Despite the fact that FDI is increasingly important to developing countries, over the past few years the share of the developing countries in worldwide FDI inflows has been declining. The paper analyses geographical and sector distribution of FDI in the Southeast European countries (SEEC) and compares its amount with that in Central East European countries. According to economic theory, FDI towards developing countries flows for labor-intensive and low-technology production, while towards developed states, it flows for high-technology production. Identification of determining factors of FDI is a complex problem which depends on several characteristics specific for each country, sectors, and companies. All those factors could be grouped in three broad categories: economic policy of host country, economic performance, and attractiveness of national economy. On the desegregated level, FDI depends on size and growth potential of a national economy, natural resources endowments and quality of workforce, openness to international trade and access to international markets, and quality of physical, financial, and technological infrastructure. An important question is how SEEC can attract more foreign investment. To find the answer, this paper uses data on FDI inflows to SEEC to determine the main host country determinants of FDI and provides regression-based estimation of determinants of FDI. Using a sample of SEEC and panel data techniques, the determinants of FDI in this part of Europe are investigated. The paper researches the relationship between FDI, GDP, GDP per capita, number of inhabitants, trade openness, inflation, external debt, and information and communication technology sectors. For SEEC, FDI inflows are largely dependent on the completion of the privatization process and in this paper we include the level of private sector and privatization as explanatory variables. Our findings suggest that certain variables such as privatization and trade regime, as well as the density of infrastructure, appear to be robust under different specifications. A positive significance of the agglomeration factor is also observed, confirming the relevant theoretical propositions. However, certain differential variables, such as the privatization, could not be fully captured due to the statistical homogeneity of the sample.

Exporting or Pulling Down?

This paper hypothesises that public support for the economic and political transformation in east-central Europe in 1989 was fuelled by enthusiasm for the reception of the (west) European Social Model, where the capitalist mode of production was combined with a high degree of social protection. In the first part of the article the author identifies the basic values of and the challenges to the European Social Model. Them he analyses the impact of the European Union on the transformation of east-central European social policy in the 1990s, and concludes that the negotiations concerning the accession of post-communist east-central European countries to the EU hardly contributed to the reception of the core values of the European Social Model in the new member states. Giving an overview of he social situation in the accession countries, the third part of the article calls the reader’s attention to the alarming differences regarding the quality of life between the EU Fifteen and the new member states. In the final part, the author raises questions about the European Union’s capacity to preserve the European Social Model, taking reactions of the members states to post-enlargement fears of social gaps between the east and west of Europe into consideration.

Making Democracy Under Communist and European Rule

Europe Undivided: Democracy, Leverage, and Integration After Communism. By Milada Anna Vachudova. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. 360 pp., $95.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-19-924118-X), $29.95 paper (ISBN: 0-19-924119-8). At the end of the Cold War, Francis Fukuyama (1989) captured the watershed change in international politics with the metaphor of the “end of history,” by which he meant “the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government” (Fukuyama 1989:3). Despite Fukuyama's confident claim, the process of convergence toward liberal democracy has been—and still is—far from being straightforward for those countries that emerged from communist rule. Milada Anna Vachudova offers an indepth analysis of the process toward liberal democracy in Eastern and Central Europe. Europe Undivided , indeed, traces the political and economic trajectories of six East–Central European countries, recording their successes and failures with regard to a number of issues—ranging from the establishment of open democratic institutions to the protection of minority rights—within a 15-year time horizon. The aim is to explain patterns of variation or convergence across the six case studies, which are grouped in countries that embarked on either a “liberal” (Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic) or an “illiberal” (Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia) “pattern of political change” after the collapse of communist rule. In order to account for the variety of political and economic outcomes that have occurred since 1989, Vachudova builds a two-level model combining domestic factors (the …

Another Brick in the Wall? Putting Freedom and Democracy on the Curriculum in Hungarian Schools

Hungary is an East Central European country with a population of 10 million. Every day about 1,821,000 children (between the ages of six and eighteen) go to kindergarten, elementary and secondary schools. Approximately a further one million parents and teachers are affected by the public institutional system. How does this mass of many millions of people manage everyday conflicts? What conflict management and civic models does Hungarian public education use today, 15 years after transition to democracy? Relying on nation-wide studies carried out in recent years by the Kurt Lewin Foundation I will now attempt to reveal answers to questions like these. Our work presents the connection and correlation between school aggression, hazing, and the civic socialisation of the individual. The text is also inclusive of a number of interview extracts, too.

The Democratic Puzzle

This article is an attempt to describe how far democracy has developed in Hungary since 1989. It takes an inventory of those factors that have been described by political scientists as essential criteria for a working democracy and considers how far these criteria have been satisfied in Hungary up to now. It concludes that every democracy in the world must struggle with deficiencies, every society must incessantly work to solve the emerging problems and to rearrange the pieces of the 'democratic puzzle'. This is especially true of those East Central European countries that have emerged from 40 years of authoritarian rule.

Working Time, Gender and Family: An East‐West European Comparison

This article provides a comparison of three West European countries with five Central East European countries in respect of working time and the integration of work and family life. The countries are the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK in West Europe and Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia in Central East Europe. As well as providing an East–West comparison, the article also takes into account the differing institutional and policy contexts in the selected countries and the different routes to flexibility. A further aim of the article is to extend our understanding of the culture and values which underpin the organization of family and work in each country. Whilst there is a clear East–West divide, all eight countries demonstrate diverse routes to flexibility and different mixes of social policies and gender cultures which have lead to considerable differences in the integration of work and family life.

Why is the issue of land ownership still of major concern in East Central European (ECE) transitional countries and particularly in Hungary?

In recent negotiations related to agriculture in connection with EU accession, the candidate countries asked for and received a period of 7–12 years exemption from EU rules with respect to the free movement of capital for the purpose of purchasing agricultural land. This means that, with some exceptions, foreigners will be prevented from buying land in most new member countries for a transitional period. The negotiating governments of the prospective new Member States claimed that a transitional period would be necessary because land prices are much lower in their countries than in the 15 EU ‘old’ countries. They claimed that without such an exemption, land in their countries would be bought cheaply by people of the ‘old’ EU countries, thus causing land scarcity for domestic farmers. However, statistical data do not support fears about land scarcity at present or in the future. The reasons for ‘keeping away’ foreigners from ‘national land’ are ideological rather than economic. Land continues to play a crucial role in rural-nationalist ideology, which has survived even after the disappearance of its bases, i.e. rural over-population and genuine land scarcity.

An international programme in nursing and midwifery: building capacity for the new millennium

The global economy is changing rapidly and frequently affects the ability of the health sector to respond to a variety of needs. Nurses and midwives are reaching across national boundaries to strengthen their ability to improve the health of populations. This article describes an innovative programme of collaboration among different nations to strengthen the capacity of nurses and midwives. Over the course of 4 years, nurses and midwives from several countries in East Central Europe, Central America, and the Caribbean came together in the United States and in Europe to learn about opportunities for growth and collaboration to improve professional development, leadership capacity, educational and curricular development, and knowledge about international health. Programme participants reported increased capacity to perform their professional roles as a result of their having participated in this programme. More capacity building activities are needed to further enable nursing professionals to meet the demands for health care around the world.

The Left Transformed in Post-Communist Societies. The Cases from East-Central Europe, Russia and Ukraine ed. by Jane Leftwich Curry, Joan Barth Urban (review)

606 Рецензии/Reviews идентификационных поисках, в том числе и исключительно лич- ного свойства (С. 7). В самом деле, насколько его “украинская идентичность” тождественна идентичности украинца в Укра- ине, аналогична ли идентич- ность представителей той или иной диаспоры идентичности жителя метрополии? Одним словом, вопросов при чтении этой книги возникает очень много, на некоторые из них от- вета пока нет. Вместе с тем, нам кажется очень важным и существенным ключевой вывод, сформулиро- ванный Когутом: “В последнее время, изучая украинские корни общерусской идентичности, я убедился, что в Украине сосу- ществовали, да и сейчас сосуще- ствуют разные уровни идентич- ности, по-разному соотносясь и развиваясь в зависимости от политических обстоятельств” (С. 8). Magdalena ŻÓŁKOŚ Jane Leftwich Curry and Joan Barth Urban (Eds.), The Left Transformed in Post-Communist Societies. The Cases from East-Central Europe, Russia and Ukraine (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003). 284 pp. Bibliography, Index. ISBN: 0-7425-2664-X (paperback). Since the end of the Cold War, political scientists and journalists have expended copious amounts of ink tracing the trajectories of the successors of the former ruling communist parties in east central Europe and the former Soviet Union. Their organizational and ideational transformations, as well as adaptive aptitudes, have become particularly intriguing in the context of their successful reappearance in the arena of democratic politics. At the same time, the widespread tendency has been to approach this problem through the juxtaposition of intrinsically similar cases, i.e., conducting separate analyses within the clusters of east central European countries, the Baltic States, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. In this context, the book edited by Jane Leftwich Curry and Joan Barth Urban offers a valuable opportunity to study the former communist parties across a number of (rather dissimilar ) cases through an extended period (from 1989/1991 to 2002). 607 Ab Imperio, 3/2005 Their only (though major) commonality was the “shared communist legacy, [which] affected them in vital and often similar ways” (P. 245). This book has therefore a twofold goal: (i) to describe different development trajectories of these successor organizations , with a particular emphasis on their ability to adjust to the democratic “rules of the game,” and (ii) to propose an explanatory framework for the existence of profound differences between, on the one hand, east central European successor parties , and, on the other, Russian and Ukrainian ones. In this sense it is “a work of contemporary history rather than theory construction,” intended for professionals working in the area, university students, and political scientists ” (P. 2). The opening thesis is that whereas the successor parties in east central Europe (Poland, Hungary, and Lithuania) illustrate a radical break with the communist past, a dynamic social-democratic evolution, and a successful adjustment to the precepts of democracy, the parties in Russia and Ukraine have persistently related to their communist ideological legacy and developed into neo-Leninist, anti-Western, and anti-system political entities. The sixth successor party they analyze, the German PDS (the Party of Democratic Socialism), is regarded as an intermediate case displaying features characteristic of both types. The study of each case is preceded by a short historical outline of the national practice of communism . The main emphasis is placed on the role of the leading party within the larger political context, its internal developments and relation to different forms of societal organization, and, finally, its reaction to the activities of the domestic opposition. Additionally, each case includes a thorough description of the dynamics and mode of transition to democracy in 1989-1991. These two elements provide an important contextualization for the study of the successor parties in the sense that the established national position and potency of the party and the type of transition constitute a part of the explanatory framework for their different postcommunist trajectories . The subsequent examination concentrates on the organizational, tactical, personal, and ideational transformations of the former communist parties, taking as a reference point the electoral sequences of their subsequent participation in government and in opposition. In Curry and Urban’s book, the Democratic Left Alliance in Poland, the Hungarian Socialist Party, and the Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party (as allegedly the only Baltic re-tooled former communist party) exemplify an impressive transition from defeated tyrants into legitimate political actors. In this context, the 608 Рецензии/Reviews authors emphasize the significance of the parties’ transformatory period until their first victorious elections (in 1993, 1994, and 1992, respectively ). Being in opposition to the governing anti-communist coalitions motivated them to implement critical internal reforms, such as structural democratization (for instance , decentralization and outreach to the local electorate), programmatic restructuring (move towards social-democratic ideology, as well as commitment to market reform) and personnel reorganization (new recruitment to the leadership). Nevertheless, the authors do not recognize their increase in popularity as directly proportional to their transformations, but as at least partly a product of...

Challenges of Regional Policy and Responses of Traditional Public Administration in East-Central European Countries

The paper deals with the development of the management system of regional policy in four countries (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania). It presents the results and dilemmas concerning the creation of the territorial administration and the administrative meso-level, the special organs of regional policy and their interconnections with public administration. It also touches upon the emerging conflicts between the traditional institutions of democratic participation and publicity, and the new characteristics of the partnership networks. The presentation points out the decentralisation and modernisation challenges initiated by regional policy in the new member states in the light of European regional development strategy in the future and the domestic situation as well.

Eurocracy and Tribalism

The paper argues that there are several factors suggesting the position and behaviour of eurocrats within member-state administrations to be similar to those of a “tribe” within a large hierarchical organisation. These factors are most clearly present in the East-Central European countries, for reasons including the greater discrepancy between a eurocratic and an ordinary civil-service career, the historically given inability of these countries' governments to participate in the development of EU institutions, and the guidance and close control exercised by the European Commission over the establishment of eurocratic institutions in these countries.

Editorial

American power and influence have been expanding in every zone formerly under the control of the Soviet Union. This has not been a royal road, smooth and free of risk. For instance, as Suzzette R. Grillot (with Dessie Apostolova) argue, Bulgaria, which is about to enter NATO, had ‘throughout the 1990s provided 15 million dollars worth of light artillery guns to Iraq, using Polish intermediaries and forging end-user certificates’. This kind of ‘back-stage’ deal is as much interesting as it is important. Former Soviet satellites do not tend to surrender overnight their national interests to American wishes. Grillot and Apostolova have produced a very scholarly article. The other themes explored in the issue are as much relevant. Paul Dragos Aligica looks at the ways in which the integration of the Balkan region into global markets can be achieved. Aligica makes clear that the peculiar ‘dualism’ of the region has to be taken seriously into account by policy-makers in order to achieve a fully-fledged integration of the Balkans into world and European markets without major tensions and aftershocks. Keith Brown and Dimitrios Theodossopoulos make out a different case: they criticize some Balkan narratives by which the role of external forces in the region has been analysed and understood. The Republic of Cyprus, together with Malta and other East-Central European countries, will be joining the European Union next spring. But a solution to the island’s de facto division since 1974 is still pending, as the leader of the Turkish-Cypriot community, Rauf Rauf Denktash, turned down the Anan Plan, a scheme that was providing for the re-unification of the island along federal lines. We know enough on EU-Cyprus relations and some of its complicated aspects, but we know very little on how the Parliament of the Republic contributed to the road of Cyprus’s accession to the EU. We are delighted to publish a shorter version of Stavridis’s original work on the ‘international relations of the Cypriot Parliament’, which appeared as ‘The international role of the Cypriot Parliament and Cyprus’s accession to the EU’, in Vassilis K. Fouskas and Heinz A. Richter (eds), Cyprus and Europe: The Long Way Back (Bibliopolis, Mannheim, 2003). Christophe Solioz’s interview with Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch is most interesting as, among other things, it touches upon the sensitive issue of ownership in a state such as that of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Petrisch is optimistic and he believes that the key to a peaceful future for Bosnia lies in a democratic framework which ‘strengthens state institutions, promotes economic reform and allows all refugees to go back to their homes’. Ilaria Favretto has worked on the reviews section, also editing two interesting review articles by Dia Anagnostou and Paco Romero. Anagnostou reviews two scholarly publications on minorities in Greece and the Balkans and historian Romero two important books on Spain.

History and present situation of paediatric ENT surgery in Poland and in other Central East European countries

One of the first paediatric ENT centres in the world was the research group managed by Jan Danielewicz in Warsaw. It was organised on the basis of progress clinics and paediatric ENT wards, and a programme of specialisation was established. Almost simultaneously, in the sixth decade of the 20th century, centres for paediatric ENT were established in Prague, Berne, Bratislava, Budapest, Bucharest, and Sofia. In the 1970s, these were in touch with the centre for paediatric ENT in Italy, which was the pioneer in this specialty in West Europe. The effect of this contact was the creation of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Societies and the International Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (IFOS), and further dynamic progress in this specialisation.

Celebrating Women: Gender, Festival Culture, and Bolshevik Ideology, 1910-1939 by Choi s> Chatterjee (review)

REVIEWS 755 unofficial British dealings with the countries of East-Central Europe. Evans also contraststhe ostensibly correct, but distant and non-committal, attitude of the ForeignOffice with the 'unofficialcontacts' that were 'much closer, but haphazardand often conflicting'(p. I5). One may counterthat Britishforeign policy sufferedfromthe same contradictionsand conflictingsympathies.Even so, scholarly interest has undoubtedly proved much stronger than political links. Historians, the 'dramatis personae' of Evans, persevered with their partisan views even after I948, when 'Eastern Europe (as it had become) revertedto being a distantand alien environmentforBritishpolicy' (p. 21). Overall, this study is a measured attempt to prove the significance of intellectual connections between Britain and East-Central Europe, without exaggeratingthe strategicimportanceof the region or the impact of historians on the officialmind. Department ofLanguages andEuropean Studies G. BATONYI University ofBradford Chatterjee,Choi. Celebrating Women: Gender, Festival Culture, andBolshevik Ideology, I9IO-I939. PittSeriesinRussianandEastEuropean Studies. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 2002. X + 223 PP. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography.Index. $34.95. CHOI CHATTERJEE opens this study with a personal anecdote about her own experience of International Women's Day in Moscow in I992. The flowers, the meal procured and preparedby women, the men's ritualisticand archaic toasts these images and her sense of incongruity evoke my own memories of the 8 March in the Soviet Union and Russia. Precisely the incongruities between women and celebrationsin Soviet discoursedrew her to thisproject. The resultisa persuasiveandwell arguedstudythatexploresthe 'morphology' of the New Soviet Woman and helps to explain many of the incongruitiesof women's roles duringthe I930s. Chatterjee examines the history of International Women's Day from its initial proposal by Clara Zetkin in I9IO and first Russian celebration sponsored by the Bolsheviks -in I913 through to its establishmentas one of the three key holidays (alongside I May and I November) in the Soviet politicalcalendar.This was not an inevitableprogression,asshedemonstrates, forthe holiday was almosttotallyneglected duringthe CivilWarand the early years of the NEP. It would find increasing acceptance by both women and men in the late I920S and then experience its heyday during the following decade. However, this study does not focus narrowly on the institutional history of a holiday. As Chatterjee emphasizes, International Women's Day also provided an annual opportunity to write about women's roles in the family, society as a whole, and the revolutionaryprocess. The study of these multiple discoursesthus illuminatesthe changing content of Soviet ideology, the development of a public culture, and, to some extent, the ways in which people functioned in this new public space. 756 SEER, 8i, 4, 2003 The book is organized chronologically and topically. In the first chapter, which focuses on the period before 1917, Chatterjeeanalysesselected themes from Marxist and Bolshevikdiscussionsof the woman question as well as the attempts to celebrate the new holiday despite both tsaristrepression and the feminists'bid to appropriateit for their own uses. Bolshevikideology did not presume women's biological inability to act as citizens, she suggests, but instead constructed female liberation (and agency) around a transformative narrativewhich merged historical and personal regeneration. Backwardness could thusbe overcome throughthe internalizationof Bolshevikpropaganda. In chapter two, Chatterjeere-readsthe events and narrativesof the February Revolution, especially the reasons for dating its beginnings to International Women's Day on 23 February.Indeed, she suggeststhat historicalnarratives of the revolutionaryyear are built upon a gender dichotomy contrastingthe unruly and spontaneous ('feminine')revolution of Februaryto the organized and conscious ('masculine') events of October. The following chapter then turns to the early Soviet period. The almost complete absence of female representations in early celebrations and Bolshevik political culture more generally thus corresponded to the initial lack of official interest in International Women's Day, despite its continued presence in the Soviet political calendar. By the mid-i92os, however, celebrations were becoming more regular, and the Bolsheviksused them to review all that the state had achieved for women, inscribing I9 I7 as the source of women's liberation and development of political consciousness.Particularlyinterestingis Chatterjee's review of the popular responsesto the holiday, which ranged from supportto confusion to outright hostility and suggest that many women were also appropriating the new narratives and language. Precisely these narratives form the topic of chapter four, which presents a truly fascinating textual analysisof propagandaplays for InternationalWomen...

Shaping the Economic Landscapes of Postsocialism? Labour, Workplace and Community in Nowa Huta, Poland

For years, the countries of east central Europe and the former Soviet Union were described as workers' states. The formal commitment of the governing parties to the construction of states run by workers for workers was reflected materially and ideologically in the landscape. The end of communism in 1989 brought new challenges for workers and workers' organisations in the region as the processes of transformation led these countries towards neoliberal and globalising economic and political systems. This paper explores these transformations in the case of Nowa Huta in southern Poland, mapping the role of workers in the shaping of economic landscapes. After considering the importance of labour in the construction of Nowa Huta, the paper considers the place of workers and workers' organisations, especially Solidarity, in shaping political and economic issues at both the local and national scale as socialism in Poland began to falter. The latter half of the paper explores the role of labour in shaping the experience of reforms after 1989. This discussion is set in the context not only of wider literatures on postsocialist transformations, but also of the growing body of work in labour geography. The paper argues that the particular development of labour movements and institutions in Poland presents opportunities for a community‐based renaissance of worker influence, but that other historical and political factors—such as union support for marketisation and the divided nature of Polish labour politics—have, in practice, hindered the ability of Polish labour to shape the economic landscapes of postsocialism. The paper concludes on a note of optimism, recognising that the faltering of the Polish economy might open spaces for a successful labour intervention.

Globalisation, Lifelong Learning and Their Impacts on Adult Education of Central East-European Countries

The challenges of the new millennium are turning everything upside down. Modernisation, globalisation, and a change of paradigm since 1989 have altered our perspectives of the mechanisms by which the societies of Central and Eastern European countries operate. Life expectancy has increased throughout the world, overpopulation has stopped in Europe, and integration movements have exerted increasing influence, constraining societies by outlining and reshaping not only the ‘map of the future’, but also of sub-systems and groups of societies of Central and Eastern Europe. It is evident that, in future societies, the real wealth generated from natural and social resources will depend upon the quality and wealth of human resources. This article scrutinises this issue within the context of lfelong learning.

From the Special Issue Editors

Foreword to the Special Issue on Marketing in Transitional Economies Transitional economies (TEs), formerly controlled markets that are rapidly transforming into free market economies, continue to receive interest from both corporations and academics, for separate reasons. Many of these countries—particularly those that occupy the Eurasian landmass, including the former Soviet Union, the countries of east-central Europe, China, Mongolia, India, and Vietnam—are together home to more than 40% of the world’s population. By continuously reforming social institutions (government control in particular) that used to restrict market forces, several TEs have proved that they can achieve fast and sustainable economic growth. Because of their tremendous potential purchasing power, these markets will play an important role in the economic future.

Economic Reforms and Ethnic Nationalism in the Context of Transition to Democracy: The Case of Four Eastern European Nations

The end of communism stimulated an increase of nationalism in east central European countries. It is argued that this resurgence of ethnic sentiments is a consequence of prior severe suppression during the communist rule. An important research question that arises is whether nationalism is compatible with the goals of democratization and economic reform that east central European countries set out to accomplish. This article explores the relationship between the choice of economic reforms and the use of nationalistic rhetoric as a mobilization tool. It proposes that the commitment made by any one government to liberal economic reforms is likely to be negatively correlated with the nationalism expressed in social policies. It analyzes the issue by constructing specific indicators reflecting levels for both economic reforms and nationalism embedded in social policies. The research includes four countries: Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine, over a period of six years. Results lend support to the hypothesis that the commitment of a government to liberal economic reforms is associated with low levels of official nationalism.

The Two Sides of Euroscepticism

This article aims to make a three-fold contribution to the study of Euroscepticism in the wider Europe. First, it presents a two-dimensional conceptualization of party positions on European integration in general, and of Euroscepticism in particular, distinguishing between diffuse and specific support for European integration (i.e. `support for the ideas of European integration' and `support for the EU'). Second, it analyses the location, type, and electoral strength of party-based Euroscepticism in the four candidate countries of East Central Europe - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Third, it contributes to the ideology vs. strategy debate, showing that ideology is the dominant explanation for both types of support, although strategy at times plays a role in explaining specific support.

Attitudes to Europe

The objective of the article is to assess the extent to which party ideology and strategic incentives account for political parties' attitudes to European integration in one of the East Central European EU-applicant countries, Hungary. Starting with general propositions regarding the relationship between particular ideological strands and orientations to European integration, the main focus of the article is on individual parties' policies and rhetoric on the EU as shaped by the dynamic context of the party system. The Hungarian case suggests that, while ideology structures underlying attitudes to integration, parties' predispositions are not directly translated into a corresponding policy of supporting or rejecting membership per se: the parties are constrained by their own early pro-European rhetoric as well as short-term competitive pressures and the need to be acceptable as coalition partners.