Hungarian Governments Research Articles

Between sealed borders and welcome culture

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the German and Hungarian Governments’ mediated public diplomacy (mpd) efforts during the European migrant crisis and their reflection in the international news media.Design/methodology/approachThe study relies on a quantitative content analysis of English press releases and interviews distributed by the governments and their reflection in CNN and Al-Jazeera English. Overall, a sample of 483 texts was coded. Herein, the main actors, topics, frames, and information subsidies were analyzed. A comparison of the public diplomacy efforts and their reflection in the news then allows for assumptions about their potential impact on the news.FindingsThe data shows that the Hungarian Government uses more information subsidies in their communication than their German counterpart. Hence, the news agenda shows more similarities to the main topics put forward in the Hungarian sub-sample. The news framing, however, is more favorable toward the perspectives put forward in the German public diplomacy.Practical implicationsThe results indicate that well planned and designed messaging does not guarantee successful communication. It also shows that critical journalism still plays an important role in the international news production.Originality/valueThe paper’s main contribution is that it goes beyond the war-based case studies on mpd and investigates one of the most relevant transnational issues in the last decades. In addition, it sheds light on why the media reflect some sponsored frames while they mostly discredit others.

Dilemmas about the protection the core values in the European Union

The European integration was primarily about economic cooperation, but the European Union’s role in protecting the core values in its Member States. EU values were first mentioned in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty on European Union, and since the Amsterdam Treaty the community law has a sufficiently precise description of this values, which should be respected not only by countries aspiring to the EU but also by the Member States themselves. The Lisbon Treaty defines EU values; however, nowadays the EU has to face the phenomenon when some government apparently violate these values. In recent years, defiance of core EU principles by the Polish and Hungarian governments is turning into a political debate. The European Commission has taken legal action against both governments, and the European Parliament supports this course. This short paper would like to address what the European institutions can do in these cases. Is the current treaty of the EU effective to address these phenomena?

„Hát megpróbálunk küzdeni”: átalakuló boldogulási stratégiák Kárpátalján az Euromajdan után

Ukrajna közelmúltbeli viharos története politikai, gazdasági és társadalmi válsághoz vezetett az ország egészében és vizsgálati terepünkön, Kárpátalján is. A katonai konfliktus, a behívók, valamint az egyre mélyülő gazdasági válság jelentősen átalakította a 2014 előtti boldogulási stratégiákat, felerősítve a külföldre irányuló migrációt – etnikai hovatartozástól függetlenül.Tanulmányunk mintegy gyorsjelentésként arra vállalkozik, hogy átfogó képet adjon Kárpátalja jelenlegi helyzetéről, valamint az elmúlt három évben végbement, a magyar közösséget érintő markáns változásokról. Fő célunk annak bemutatása, hogy az Ukrajna területén bekövetkezett bel- és geopolitikai események (Euromajdan, a Krím elvesztése, kelet-ukrajnai fegyveres konfliktus) hogyan alakították át Kárpátalján az egyéni és családi boldogulási mintázatokat, köztük a tanulmányunk fókuszában álló migrációs stratégiákat és a magyar–ukrán határon átnyúló informális kapcsolatokat. Írásunkban külön kitérünk Magyarország támogatáspolitikájának migrációt ösztönző avagy fékező hatásaira.A 2016 tavaszán végzett terepmunkánk alapján kijelenthetjük, hogy a korábban sem elhanyagolható mértékű mobilitás és a határhoz kötődő informális gazdasági stratégiák – mint önálló vagy kiegészítő bevételszerzési lehetőségek – felerősödtek Kárpátalján. A helyiek mobilitási stratégiáinak meghatározó jellemzője a cirkularitás, mind a külföldi munkavállalás, mind a határon átívelő rendszeres mozgások (pl. ingázás, csempészés, kiskereskedelem) esetében, de egyre erősödő forma a végleges kitelepedés is. Mindezen mozgásokat jelentősen megkönnyítették a magyar nemzetpolitika egyes lépései, különösen a magyar állampolgárság egyszerűsített megszerzésének lehetősége.

Impact of Leaders : The Impact of the Engagement of Local Government Leaders’ on the Effectiveness of Participatory Planning as Found in the Local Community Academy Program (2014–2015)

The relevance of the above quotation from an excellent author and economist, adapted to present day Hungarian local governments, is unquestionable. At the beginning of the 21st century, in a globalizing world, the demand for the direct inclusion of independent social groups and individuals and the maintenance of the communities within geographical localities have become a primary issue as opposed to the conditions under the alienating, technocratic, impersonalizing and centralized political regimes of the Europe of the second half of the past century. For this reason, the importance of the role of local leadership is magnified.The program included training for the local governments in the convergence regions, and had three pillars. The first pillar includes 6 post graduate e-learning training programs studied by approximately twenty thousand public officers. The second pillar is the network of the so-called Local Community Academies, comprising the elaboration of strategic methodologies by local participants to be recommended to local governments. The third pillar supported the traditional classroom training for three hundred local government employees.The program of the Local Community Academies (LCA) aimed to support the social inclusion, and the ability of strategy-making. This study aims to answer the following research question: “How did the engagement and involvement of local government leaders, affect participatory planning during implementation of the LCA program?” The relevant research method is an empirical analysis of survey data and final reports.

The British Empire and International Terrorism: India's Separate Path at the League of Nations, 1934–1937

AbstractIn October 1934, a Croatian terrorist organization assassinated King Alexander of Yugoslavia in the streets of Marseilles, France. His murder caused an international crisis because of the safe haven given to the group by the Italian and Hungarian governments. The assassination led the world's first peacekeeping body, the League of Nations, to intervene and to propose a legal solution for the political crisis. In November 1937, the league completed two antiterrorism treaties. Only the British colonial government of India ratified the terrorism convention, which was, by contrast, rejected by the United Kingdom on legal and political grounds. This article examines the European origins of the League of Nation's consideration of international terrorism and the divisions that occurred between Delhi and London over supporting the antiterrorism measure. Delhi's separate membership in the League of Nations allowed the colonial government to deviate from London and to sign a treaty deemed necessary for domestic security.

Local government finances in Hungary: From the culprit of fiscal slippages to a source of stability?

While in the decade prior to 2010 Hungarian local governments had been a notorious contributor to budgetary slippages and growing public indebtedness, the sector’s balance has subsequently turned to positive in the context of a wide-ranging centralisation effort and the corresponding revamp in subnational financing arrangements. The fiscal indicators therefore, prima facie, point to a transformation of a regular sinner into a source of stability. Based on a detailed account of the recent reform steps and the preliminary assessment of their first impacts, this study argues that it is too early to conclude that the observed positive developments are the structural results of the measures taken over the last five years. The enacted institutional streamlining, the new debt authorisation rule and the increased tapping of the local tax potential should all have a lasting positive impact on public finances. Nonetheless, the intended efficiency gains due to economies of scale in service provision are not yet apparent, insofar as no reduction has been achieved in the headcount of the concerned branches. Moreover, the observed non-differentiation in the debt assumption may raise the spectre of moral hazard for the municipalities in the longer run.

Települési környezetvédelem Magyarországon: Egy kutatás előfeltevései

Az alábbi cikk a Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovációs Hivatal által támogatott, Helyi önkormányzati szerepek és eszközök az ökológiai fenntarthatóság megvalósításában címet viselő, alapvetően jogtudományi (de emellett szociológiai és politológiai) megközelítésű kutatás bevezető tanulmánya. Célja rögzíteni az interdiszciplináris kutatás hipotéziseit és várható eredményeit. Úgy véljük, hogy a helyi cselekvési szintnek az ökológiai fenntarthatóság elérésében játszott szerepe nélkülözhetetlen, habár nem egyedüli, és nem is az elsődleges tényező. Ha az önkormányzatok túl sok feladatot és hatáskört kapnak, akkor azokat nem tudják megfelelően ellátni, illetve a környezetpolitika, környezetjog egészének hatékonysága gyenge (hiszen számos probléma nem közelíthető meg helyi szinten). Ha túl kevés feladatuk, illetve hatáskörük van, akkor amellett, hogy csorbul a helyi önkormányzáshoz való jog, a környezetpolitika, illetve környezetjog összességében megint nem lesz eléggé hatékony. Egyensúlyt kell tehát találni valahol, ami a változó lehetőségek és kihívások függvényében nem egy statikus egyensúly, hanem csakis dinamikus egyensúly lehet, folyamatos súlypontváltoztatással. Abból indulunk ki, hogy környezeti fenntarthatósági szempontból jelenleg is számos változás indokolt, melyek részben intézményi, strukturális jellegűek. Úgy véljük, hogy a helyi közösségek igényei, érdekei és elvárásai sem hagyhatók figyelmen kívül, ezért a kérdéskör értelmezése során több aktor szempontjaival és cselekvéseivel kell számolni.

A 3D Monte Carlo Semiconductor DeviceSimulator For Submicron Silicon MOSTransistors

A new 3D Monte Carlo simulator has been developed for analyzing the properties of submicron Si MOS transistors using the molecular dynamics method. This program, called MiCroMOS uses the possible deepest first principles instead of any abstractions or simplifications. In this way, problems arising from the usage of a continuum view, drift-diffusion equations or effective mobility concept are inherently avoided. One of the most important new features of the program is that instead of solving Poisson's equation, the exact potential and electric field caused by the charged particles inside the simulated structure is analytically calculated, resulting in an exact modelling of all Coulomb scattering mechanisms and in real particle trajectories. 'This research has been sponsored by the Digital Equipment Co. EERP HG-001 and SW-003 projects, and by the Swedish and Hungarian governments' scientific research funds. Transactions on Engineering Sciences vol 3, © 1993 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3533 346 Software Applications in Electrical Engineering NOTATION $(r) potential at point r tmp(r) potential at point r arising from charged impurities $n(r) potential at point r arising from electrons #p(r) potential at point r arising from holes ^mt(r) potential arising from interface charges #g(r) potential at point r caused by applied biases and boundary conditions Eimp(r) Aeld at point r caused by charged impurities En(r) field at point r caused by electrons Ep(r) field at point r caused by holes E,n((r) field at point r caused by interface charges m~J reciprocal effective mass tensor mt transversal effective mass m/ longitudinal effective mass k wave vector

Austerity and politically motivated changes – wage bargaining in Hungarian municipal services

Salaries of public sector employees have been the number one target of austerity measures applied by successive Hungarian governments since 2006, and trade unions have found it difficult to influence government policies. Until 2008 the outcomes of centralized quasi-bargaining somewhat mitigated the harsh measures, but later governments, especially the right-wing one in place since 2010, abandoned such negotiations, implementing labour law reforms that weakened trade union bargaining power and concluding selective agreements solely with representatives of certain strong groups of employees. Social dialogue institutions have become especially weak at sectoral and municipal levels. Though decentralized collective bargaining is common in larger private sector companies, and though the legal regulation is similar in state-/municipality-owned companies, genuine collective bargaining within the latter is very rare. The article presents two case studies (on geriatric care and public transport) highlighting current developments and their impacts on employment relations.

Re-territorializing the ‘Guilty City’: Nationalist and Right-wing Attempts to Nationalize Budapest during the Interwar Period

In addition to successive Hungarian governments’ revisionist agenda and the re-education of the population in a Christian and national spirit, the symbolic takeover of Budapest spaces was another priority of Hungarian nationalist policy during the interwar period. From 1920 nationalist and right wing groups in Hungary demonized the capital and attempted to erase its previous associations with communism, cosmopolitanism, liberalism and unbridled consumerism by re-rooting it in the national soil. In order to achieve this effect they limited the autonomy of the municipality of Budapest, erected new monuments and re-wrote the meaning of old ones as well as periodically organizing the spatial takeover of Budapest by Magyar villagers. From the later 1920s on it was the annual celebration of St Stephen in a two-week long festival which became the fulcrum of nationalist efforts to take over the public spaces of the city. However, economic concerns related to the development of urban tourism limited their effectiveness. This article argues that due to the spread of consumerism and tourism propaganda concerns within the festival, by the 1930s it was rather Budapest that was urbanizing nationalism instead of the right wingers nationalizing the city.

Roots and Consequences of local Governance Reforms in Hungary

The author’s aim is to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the spatial frameworks of public power practice in an international and theoretical context with an emphasis on Hungarian specifics. The current relevance of drawing up an assessment is justified by the fact that the institutional framework of Hungarian local governments was created 20 years ago at the change of regime, and so the time is ripe to evaluate experience with its operation, the more so since the reform of territorial public administration is regularly proposed.

Tourism and Local Governments in Hungary: The Position of Tourism in Local Council Committees of Local Governments

Abstract Introduction. The objective of this paper is to investigate the position of tourism in the committee structure of the local councils of Hungarian local governments. Material and methods. The data were sourced from websites of the settlements concerned and all the results obtained statistically evaluated using the method of descriptive statistics. Results. From the data available, we can clearly determine the role of tourism in the committees of local governments, as well as the direction of changes after the 2010 election. The results also clearly identified the factors that determine the role of tourism in local council committees and the sectors that constitute the same committees with tourism. Conclusions. The role of tourism in committees of local councils is fundamentally unfavourable and the situation deteriorated after the 2010 election. The role of tourism in committees of local councils is closely related to the size of the population and the role of tourism in the given settlements.

National Identities for Export: East European Cultural Diplomacy in Inter-War Pittsburgh

AbstractThis article examines inter-war east-central European cultural diplomacy as played out in one apparently remote locale: the Nationality Rooms of the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh. Here, a local project originally intended to pay homage to the various immigrants of the Steel City was transformed into a transatlantic project in which the Czechoslovak, Hungarian and Romanian governments (among others) each aimed to construct and propagate a national image abroad. A close looks at this particular ‘transnational construction site’ reveals a surprisingly complex entanglement of cultural production, the construction of national identities, and foreign policy. Battles over space and artistic content also lay bare the sense of competition, urgency and anxiety that, this article argues, characterised inter-war cultural diplomacy in east-central Europe.

Transformations of the ”autonomus Vojvodina” idea

The idea of an autonomous region of Vojvodina had its origins in Serbian political thought and the new political, demographic and cultural circumstances and opportunities which emerged beginning in the 17th century. During the 1848 Revolution Serbs within the Habspburg monarchy proclaimed a new political entity, ?Serbian Vojvodina?, which incorporated parts of southern Hungary, Croatia and the Military Border. The Hungarian governments? refusal to countenance what it saw as separatism led to a bloody civil war. In November 1849, following the suppression of the Hungarian revolt, emperor Franz Joseph granted the Serbs a territory larger than they demanded, which led to their being outnumbered by other ethnic communities. This duchy lasted only for a decade. In a self-proclaimed effort to break with the complex problems of the past and to take into account the particularities of local history, ethnic structure, and cultural distinctiveness, the communist government of Yugoslavia awarded territorial autonomy to Vojvodina in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Is the conflict container full? Problems of fiscal sustainability at the local government level in Hungary

The paper discusses the reasons and possible resolutions of the contradictions in the Hungarian local government system, and proposes methods to resolve them. The nature of the Hungarian system cannot be described by classical normative theories of fiscal federalism. The operation of Hungarian local governments is determined rather by the decentralisation of conflicts stemming from the reduction of state responsibilities, and the resulting municipal behaviour. The second generation theory of fiscal federalism pays particular attention to the institutional guarantees of fiscal discipline shown by the lower levels of government sector. Actors in the Hungarian system, a system that functions as a ‘conflict container’, try to offset the financial pressures, weighing heavily on them by borrowing and by contingent liabilities. While central government has transferred new duties to local governments from year to year, it has reduced the amount of fiscal subsidies. Until a long-term comprehensive reform is implemented, consequent risks must be treated in the short run, as well.

Küzmičev prevodNovega zakonav luči prevzemanja besed iz madžarščine

This paper analyzes the spiritual background of the Mura Region Slovenian priest Števan Küzmič’a (1723–1779) oeuvre, especially the circumstances and sources of his translation of the Bible, looking for the answer if he really translated the New Testament from Greek as it is stated in the title. Hungarian Calvinists were provided with two translations of the Bible when the Slovenian version was made, thanks to György Bárány and János Szabó Sartorius. The structure, content and message of the forewords written by József Torkos to Števan Küzmič’s Slovenian and András Torkos’s Hungarian translation of the Bible is similar. In Küzmič’s case the use of Hungarian patterns can be proved by borrowings from Hungarian, word formation based on Hungarian models as well as Hungarian governments and idioms. Števan Küzmič aimed at the purity of the Mura Region language but he had to borrow also from other languages to translate the complex Biblical text properly. He created a great work for Slovenians, raising the Mura Region Slovenian onto the level of a standard language.

Implementing Risk Adjusted Capitation Payments with Health Care Reforms in Hung

Since the late nineties Hungarian governments have been considering the introduction of new health care arrangements by establishing organizations with devolved responsibilities for the management of health care. These organizations are typically financed through a weighted (risk adjusted) capitation system which is regarded as an adequate and optimal tool for resource allocation purposes. Through capitation one needs to handle large inequities in the Hungarian health care system and keep an eye on the incentives for efficiency. For the capitation formula a relatively broad choice of risk adjusters are available in the form of pharmacy- and diagnosis-based patient level utilization data (health-based adjusters) and area level socio-economic data (non health-based adjusters). The instant application of health-based adjusters has limitations because they reflect a distorted provider structure and offer perverse incentives; therefore a gradual shift from using non health-based adjusters to health-based adjusters is preferred. The early phase of the capitation system also implies a strong presence of risk sharing arrangements and other complementary policies. Given that promoting efficiency and equity are to be pursued, the capitation approach outlined in this paper should serve as a guide to future Hungarian health care system reforms.
 Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) code: I28, G28, G32, H51

A civil kezdeményezések hatása a városi kormányzásra

Az integráció, a kooperáció, az együttműködés fogalmaival leírható jövő és az ezekhez nélkülözhetetlen részvétel szükséges feltétele a helyi társadalom kibontakozásának. A helyi közösség, a lakópolgárok társulásai nem „belső ellenőrei", hanem egyenrangú partnerei a helyi hatalomnak. Sokkal hitelesebb, ha az együtt-tanulás eredményeképpen civilek maradnak, tehát ügyelnek arra, hogy autentikusak legyenek.

Hungarica Canadiana — Archival sources

The material known as Hungarica Canadiana goes back to the 1880s, when a group of Hungarians in Pennsylvania, U.S.A., had expressed interest in immigrating to Canada and settling in the Canadian prairies. The first documents, mainly Cabinet discussions in Parliament, followed by extensive correspondence between the Canadian Government and Paul O. Eszterházy, a settlement agent in New York, are housed in the National Archives of Canada. During a century-and-a-half, the subject of Hungarian-Canadian studies and its archival collections has grown into an extensive and highly complex literature of print and non-print material, of official and semi-official documents issued by the Hungarian and Canadian governments and their related establishments, of societal and institutional records, of the cultural and religious organizations, as well as the private and family holdings of correspondence and photoalbums and handwritten manuscripts. Because of the enormity of the material, this essay is designed to focus on one aspect only: the archival records and their sources.As an ever growing interest has occurred over the years in Hungarian studies in Canada, the purpose of this survey is to make the vast amount of information on archival sources readily available to the student and the information specialist. For further information the reader is advised to consult this author’s bibliography Canadian Studies on Hungarians 1886–1986 , published by the University of Regina Press, Canadian Plains Research Center, 1987, and its 3rd supplement, put out by the Hungarian Studies Review, 1998. Both publications have special sections on archival sources and their organization. The Publications listed at the end of this study should also be reviewed.

The Eastern European referendum campaigns on the accession to the European Union–a critical analysis

Abstract This article analyses the communication campaigns organized to increase support for European Union (EU) membership, during referendums held between March and September 2003 in Central Europe. The focus is on the official campaigns, organized and sponsored by the Hungarian, Polish and Estonian governments. The first part of the paper reviews the special characteristics of referendums and information campaigns, followed by the challenges communication planners faced, during planning and implementing the campaigns. The common features and themes of the national campaigns, as well as the differences, are identified and analysed. The article concludes with some important lessons and recommendations to be used by future referendum campaign planners and implementers. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.