The history of the Balkans is an organic and permanent part of Hungarian history – and vice versa – even though Hungary is not a part of the region, either in the geographical or political sense, but rather its neighbour and shaper. Starting with the beginning of Hungarian statehood up until 1948, for roughly a thousand years, Balkan developments have always determined Hungary’s geopolitical situation in three respects:
• as a factor in the Balkan policy of all the great powers past and present;
• as a pre-eminent area of Hungarian foreign policy;
• as one of the principal elements of Hungarian domestic policy, including demographic and administrative changes.
There is a strong cultural mutual feedback effect between the Balkans and Hungary since population exchanges, border modifications, linguistic exchanges and nation-building have often occurred inside the territory of the Hungarian state and its immediate vicinity, with the participation of the Balkan peoples. (Important events of Serbian, Croatian, Romanian, Bosnian and partially even Bulgarian “national awakening” took place in Budapest, and all the aforementioned peoples lived under Hungarian rule for more or less prolonged periods.)
Croatians strongly supported accession to NATO and the EU in the 1990s, and as the negotiation process began in 2005, the year 2010 seems a likely date for Croatia’s EU entry. However, the public perception has changed. Scepticism towards integration prevails despite the economic recovery witnessed in this decade, which has been obvious and widely shared by different groups of the population. And although the political elite show a strong pro-European stance, doubts remain among the general population about the costs and benefits of integration.
As economic issues recently gained more importance in public debates, a shift in the mood can be partly explained by confusion about the diagnoses and potential cures for six major economic problems. These are:
(i) Sluggish export performance and lack of greenfield FDI;
(ii) A persistent balance of payments current account
deficit and relatively high external debt;
(iii) Low competitiveness, and high costs and barriers to
doing business;
(iv) The distorted view of the role of foreign banks;
(v) The lack of fiscal flexibility required for effective anticyclical
fiscal policies;
(vi) Relatively high unemployment and the perception of
high income inequalities.[…]
Hungary is a moderately corrupt country – according to the 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International (TI). This finding of the annual report accords with the results of other surveys of corruption by ranking Hungary among countries with a relatively high level of corruption in comparison with Western Europe. It also tallies with other surveys by placing Hungary among those states that joined the European Union at the same time that have relatively clean public dealings, and by putting it among the least corrupt countries in the Visegrád group. However, on publication of the 2007 Index, Transparency International Hungary observed that the rank assigned to Hungary has remained within the methodological margin of error for several years, meaning that no significant progress has been made in the fight against corruption.
An analysis of corruption trends observed between 2001 and 2007 among EU member states of the Central European region may shed light on the mechanisms that helped other countries achieve significant results in curbing corruption. Currently no methodology exists that could measure the level of corruption by covering the entire spectrum of the phenomenon. Corruption indicators based on crime statistics cover only a fraction of cases since the most characteristic feature of incidences of corruption is that they tend to favour both sides of the agreement, seriously reducing the chances of their discovery. The disadvantage of indicators measuring the perception of corruption, as an alternative source of data, is that they do not measure the level of corruption itself but the degree to which a given country, institution or sector is perceived as corrupt by various population groups. Given the methodological limits of quantitative studies, it is always worth comparing their results to the conclusions of qualitative analyses; in this way, we can get a (more) comprehensive picture of corruption in a given country or region.[...]
Author(s): László Hovanyecz / Language(s): Hungarian
/ Issue: 04/2007
Following regime transition a wide variety of hopes were expressed that amidst new, democratic conditions some kind of unity might emerge in Central Europe. Over a decade and a half later, however, there does not appear to be the slightest chance of this happening. Oddly, this is exactly why Mária Ormos’s book entitled “Central Europe” is timely, while its subtitle – “Has it existed? Does it exist? Will it exist?” – adroitly captures the dilemmas regarding the book’s subject.[…]
Mária Ormos: Közép-Európa. Volt? Van? Lesz? (Central Europe. Has it existed? Does it exist? Will it exist?) Napvilág Kiadó, Budapest, 2007.
Since Romania’s accession to the European Union on 1 January 2007, internal conflicts have intensified, voters’ interest in politics has diminished, and bilateral relations with the country’s eastern neighbours have got more complicated. At the same time, traditional animosity with Hungary has mellowed, even while the claims of ethnic Hungarian elites have become more insistent.
The acceptance of Romania into the EU seems to have been the last common aim of the country’s politicians, the very last goal about which the Romanian political class succeeded in forging a national consensus. On completion of this task, however, Romania’s political elites did not endeavour to try and find another common project that might be able to harness their administrative, legislative, civic and intellectual energies. They chose instead to revert to their own group interests, and in so doing risked incurring multiple fragmentation at the bureaucratic and political levels, but also at the level of public opinion. Neither the government, nor the political parties, nor Parliament had prepared a post-accession strategy aimed at synchronizing the country with its fellow EU states, or at implementing a transition to another stage of social, economic and political development.
Much progress has been made in South Eastern Europe since 1999 and the NATO intervention in Kosovo. Even so, it has not always been visible because politicians and the media always tend to reflect on what is missing in this region. Also, concerning the situation in Kosovo, while there are many deficiencies, nobody is really looking at the achievements.
Although political and economic challenges remain, South Eastern Europe has been – and still remains – an increasingly favourable destination for investments. The progress that has been made becomes visible if we compare the situation now with that following the wars thatcame with the break-up of Yugoslavia, and only few questions remain open for the future. […]
Author(s): Rudolf Chmel / Language(s): Hungarian
/ Issue: 04/2007
We could even have a good laugh if only the whole thing wasn’t so sad. It was a little bit entertaining when our parliamentary history writers reached the peak of their potential and announced in one big leap, as they say, that history was not at all as complicated as we naïve professionals would imagine because everything was as straightforward as a picnic. Especially if the issue on the menu is not class struggle but merely the enemies of the nation, who are as easy to identify without fail as is the said picnic.
Max Frisch, the excellent Swiss author, notes in his autobiographical sketches that, simply put, politics is usually taken up by those (and he has men in mind, of course) who have given up on sex. That is, Frisch probably means that for them, politics is a substitute for sex. Let us not dwell on the fact that Frisch did not consider banalities such as the role of money in politics, and conclude that while no one has ever provided any practical or statistical proof of the assumption, it does not appear to be entirely irrelevant in the assessment of political activity. A case in point is when the very cornerstones of society are at stake.
It is not very surprising if under tense circumstances of that kind some people are hit by a cerebrovascular accident before their time and eventually become unfit to practice our profession – although not in the manner the erudite Swiss describes.[…]
„Két választás Magyarországon”.Az országgyűlési képviselők társadalmi összetétele a 20. század első éveiben
Author(s): József Pap / Language(s): Hungarian
/ Issue: 1/2007
The paper describes the social composition of the Hungarian parliament at the beginning of the 20th century. Research has found no discernible social differences among the various groups of the political elite the sociological character of which did not significantly differ. Taking this as a starting point we provide a statistical analysis of the members of parliament. We used national assembly data from 1901 and 1905 to carry out the comparative analysis of the members of parliament coming from different political backgrounds. We processed the database – containing nearly 600 members of parliament elected on these two occasions and 34 statistical variables for each – with the SPSS program. As a result, we could provide a statistical basis for the former findings of social historiography. According to our study, the social composition of the two parliaments of 1901 and 1905 were not significantly different, the political elite was sociologically uniform. Though the outcomes of the two elections were dominantly different, this was not discernible in the statistical indicators. The traditional political elite, the aristocracy and the former nobility were heavily represented in the parliament. The vast majority of the members of parliament had university degree, primarily from law, while intellectuals from other important fields of economy and culture were almost completely missing from the traditionally lawyer- dominated national assembly. When it came to political career, graduation in Budapest was an important factor. Two thirds of the members of parliament had spent some time in central government or local government administration before embarking on a career in politics.
Author(s): Dániel Szabó / Language(s): Hungarian
/ Issue: 1/2007
One of the major experiences of those who survived the First World War was the experience:“The soldiers are singing!”. This is especially (but not exclusively) true for the first days of the war and the enlistment period. Soldiers’ songs were an integral part of the cultural traditions of 19th-century men. The war changes the conditions of life not only for the members of the army but also for the whole society by recruiting a major part of the male population. Former soldiers’ songs may pick up additional meanings and new songs may be composed. Our study of soldiers’ songs from the First World War (that is those that were sang or collected at the time) shows that beside hatred, the defense of the country and putting the blame on the enemy, the main topics are conceit, manliness and courage. We have to remember that the army was traditionally seen as the symbol of transition from boy to man, the former members of the armed forces were to become full – male – members of the local communities. Despite the fact that the majority of the songs sung in the First World War was connected to past events, primarily to the War of Independence of 1848–49, it seems that, unlike in Germany, self-sacrifice in the war became a less organic part of the national ideology in Hungary. The main topics are parting, being far away and the relations to the mother and the lover. I believe that the momentum in the War that created a sense of national identity was mourning and loss and not the myth of heroism.
Author(s): Edina Polácska / Language(s): Hungarian
/ Issue: 1/2007
The 19th century was eventful in both Spain and France. Although the diplomatic relations of the two countries had less and less to do with the “good neighbourhood” principle, the bordering zone of the Pyrenees always offered an asylum and a logistic base for those who were prosecuted by the regime, whether liberals under Ferdinand VII, royalists during the Liberal Triennium (1820–1823) or Carlists during the three Carlist Wars. Moreover, during the last Carlist War (1872–1876) the French, disappointed by the Empire and frightened by the Commune, showed a kind of sympathy towards the exiled Monarch whom they regarded as legitimate, and despite the diplomatic pressure from Madrid for the prosecution and deportation of the Pretender’s supporters in the name of good neighbourhood, Paris and the French local authorities – including some notables, aristocrats and clergymen – received them with a kind of indulgence or even sympathy.
A bécsi Augustineum és Magyarország, 1816–1918 (Vázlat)
Author(s): Péter Tusor / Language(s): Hungarian
/ Issue: 1/2007
The aim of this study is to outline the Hungarian connections of the Augustineum (Caesareo-
Regium Sublimioris Presbyterorum Educationis ad Sanctum Augustinum Institutum Viennense, in Hungarian: Szent Ágostonról nevezett Bécsi Felsőbb Papnevelő Intézet), a special institution of ecclesiastical elite education of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. This task is very important. Neither the history of the Augustineum, nor the role it played within the Monarchy can be discussed without an analysis of the Hungarian contribution. During the existence of the institution between 1816 and 1918, 372 students were admitted from the dioceses of the Holy Hungarian Crown. This amounts to about 35% of the total number of students.The number of Latin-Rite students was 321. Among these, the Province of Esztergom was represented by 146 persons, the Provinces of Kalocsa-Bács and Zágráb by 118 (61 from Croatian dioceses), and the Province of Eger by 43. There were also 14 monks studying largely at their own expense. The number of students of the Greek Rites was 51. In the selection of the students the archbishop of Esztergom as the prince-primate of the country played a fundamental role. After the first decades of a different practice, he was the only one who could make a proposal to the monarch for the admission of new students. Yet the dioceses of the country were represented in appropriate proportions. The slightly overrepresented status of the Province of Esztergom (and the arch-diocese, 35 persons) can be explained by the fact that its seminar in Vienna, the Pazmaneum, provided suitable and readily available people for studies in higher education. The Hungarian contribution to the operation of the Augustineum was proportionate to the number of Hungarian students. [....]
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