Attitudes Towards Work And The Market Economy In Hungary

When Hungary decided to change its system from a command to a market economy, it was persuaded by friendly governments and international organizations, including the International Monetary Fund, that this could be best done under the guidance of the IMF, assisted by the World Bank. Inexperienced and trusting governments believed this and did as they were told. As a consequence, monetarism and neo-liberalism, by virtue of the Washington Consensus, were brought to Hungary and became the ruling ideologies of this transition economy that was totally unsuited to them.The consequences were disastrous. A difficult economic situation was transformed into a crisis situation: unprecedented depression with 18.2% decline of gdp; the loss of 3 years of output and 1.5 million jobs; 24% decline in real incomes, 31% decline in the purchasing power of pensions; the pauperization of a large segment of the population; deterioration of external competitive position; emergence of a large public debt; and d

This book is the product of three years of empirical research, four years in politics, and a lifetime in a country experiencing three different regimes. Transcending disciplinary boundaries, it provides a fresh answer to a simple yet profound question: why has liberal democracy retreated? Scheiring argues that Hungary’s new hybrid authoritarian regime emerged as a political response to the tensions of globalisation. He demonstrates how Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz exploited the rising nationalism among the working-class casualties of deindustrialisation and the national bourgeoisie to consolidate illiberal hegemony. As the world faces a new wave of autocratisation, Hungary’s lessons become relevant across the globe, and this book represents a significant contribution to understanding challenges to democracy. This work will be useful to students and researchers across political sociology, political science, economics and social anthropology, as well democracy advocates.

On cover & title: Employment & society

Applying the new economics of organisation and relational theories of the firm to the problem of understanding cross-national variation in the political economy, this volume elaborates a new understanding of the institutional differences that characterise the 'varieties of capitalism' worldwide.