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Hungary's Pitfalls of Progress
| Article
# : |
17407 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1990 |
1,797 Words |
| Author
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Ivan Volgyes
Ivan Volgyes is professor of political science at the
University of Nebraska. This article was presented at the
PWPA conference held December 18, 1987, in Washington, D.C.,
titled "Gorbachev's Eastern Bloc: The Uncertain Future." It
is reprinted from the book by the same title with permission
from PWPA. |
Action is the scarcest commodity in Hungary today. The people of Hungary have been asked to endure incredible sacrifice during the last decade. They are living the ninth year of the "seven lean years" with no end in sight, and their endurance has reached its limits. Any government that expects to be considered "legitimate" must have a program that will lead the nation on the road to economic progress within the immediate future.
But herein lies the problem for Hungary. For Hungary's rapid economic transformation toward a better future based on a modern economy resists quick solutions; such transformation will be slow and painful, resulting in lower levels of living for the majority of the citizens. Regardless of which leadership takes the helm, there are no quick fixes to cure the patient.
Part of the trouble lies in the fact that there are no models for the transformation of a communist, statist, centrally planned and regulated system, affiliated with and reliant on COMECON, into a modern, free-market based economic system integrated into the world economy. The obstacles are enormous even in Hungary, where there has existed for several decades an economy that has loosened many of the traditional, communist bonds and created a sort of mixed economy. Even here, the transformation must attack all elements that have hitherto been the pillars of the traditional system.
In order to be successful, a government must abolish restrictions on private property, "create" individual and "social" owners for state corporations without transferring that ownership to the entrenched managerial class of the party's choosing, and allow supply and demand to
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