Hangya a világrendszerben
Ant in the world system

A critical history of the Hungarian cooperative movement in the first half of the 20th century

Summary/Abstract: Hangya, a largely successful cooperative network in Hungary, active during the first half of the 20th century is one of the most spectacular stories from the history of the Hungarian cooperative movement. Hangya’s story is appalling mostly because of two reasons: first, because it established a vast cooperative network in only a couple of decades; and second, because this was achieved in cooperation between the small peasantry and members of the political and economic elites of the time. In this paper we analyse the nature of this odd coalition. We argue that Hangya’s activity played an active part in the crisis management and modernization efforts of the pre-WWII governments, representing the interests of large estates and large capital.

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