Унгарският вътрешнополитически живот (1921–1938)
Home Politics in Hungary between 1921 and 1938

Summary/Abstract: In the first part of her paper the author reviews the process of consolidation which was carried out under the government of prime minister Istvan Bethlen (1921–1931). She analyses the political, economic and financial aspects of this process, describes the agrarian reform and also the reform of the social service, the administration and the education. She examines the economic, social and political consequences of the Great Depression which culminated in Hungary in 1931. The second part of the paper begins with an analysis of the attempt of Gyula Gombos, prime minister of the “recovery” (1932–1936), at the country's transformation following the fascist model. As regards the administration of the last pre-war prime minister, Kalman Daranyi (1936–1938), the author mainly emphasizes the constant balancing between the political extremes and pressures. The paper gives special attention to the changing conception of Hungarian foreign policy between the two World Wars. It emphasizes Bethlein's success in the international recognition of the country and in the reconstruction of its diplomatic and economic relations, but also his failure to win over England and France, to normalize Hungary's relation with the neighbouring countries and to make the peaceful modification of the frontiers determined by the treaty of Trianon internationally accepted. The author attributes to these failures the sudden change of foreign policy whose first manifestation was the Italo-Hungarian treaty of 1927 and which led in the event to extremely close relations with Germany and to a swing to the right in domestic policy.

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