Számít-e az elit folytonossága?
Does Elite Continuity Matter?

Summary/Abstract: The article argues for a no. The transformation of the elite can be analyised from four perspectives: as personal continuity (or lack of it), as societal continuity (or lack of it), as structural transformation, and finally as changes in the elite configuration. This latter dimension is strongly connected to the nature of the entire political system: it supports its consolidated and democratic character when consensually unified elites are in dominant positions. The author finds that the nature of the elite configuration will answer the questions concerning the regime’s low performance and peaking elite conflicts – the most topical issues in Hungary in the past years. While on the surface these problems seem to be connected to personal continuity, this cannot be positively proven. Rather, the whole elite configuration has to be reconsidered. In the process of systemic change it was generally agreed that an elite settlement took place. The author argues that this evaluation has by now been undermined: the actors, the range of issues and the political orientation of the major actors have changed substantially. Thus the elite settlement does not prevail. Bringing two other elite configuration changes into the focus (the totalitarian Nazi regime’s denazification stressing personal continuity and the Spanish elite settlement after the authoritarian period) the author argues that in Hungary neither of the two can be applied with success. Hungary represents a third type, that of post-totalitarianism, in which systemic change brought forward a quasi elite settlement. The leadership, representation and policy deficits that trouble the Hungarian political system and are connected to its low performance for some years cannot be tied to personal continuity issues, rather they have to be connected to the failure of the quasi elite settlement. An understanding of the need towards an elite convergence might ease the current tensions and difficulties.

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