Political pluralisation in Hungary

The 1990 elections

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11601360
AutoresBarnabas Racz (Eastern Michigan University, autor de correspondencia)
Año1991
Volumen43
Número1
Páginas107-136
Fecha de publicación1991-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSoviet Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0038-5859
EditorialRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09668139108411913
OpenAlexW1982129993
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas16
Referencias citadas4

HUNGARY HAS SPEARHEADED the process of transformation in the socialist commonwealth since the 1956 revolution. The ensuing 1968 economic reforms, unique in scope at that time, and the subsequent liberalisation of political controls in the 1970s put Hungary at risk for potential Soviet repercussions. However, Janos Kadar's political acumen made it possible for the regime to go to the potential limits, yet avoid major danger. Amidst the political fermentation of Eastern Europe in the early 1980s the 1985 elections represented a qualitative change: voters were able to nominate/elect candidates of their own choosing, a first precedent in Marxist-Leninist states. The new Parliament, while predominantly communist, exhibited signs of independence from the beginning, gradually leading to a legislature which became a willing partner in the opposition's struggle to bring about a systemic change.1 With the removal of the Kadar entourage from power in 1988,2 under the leadership of General Secretary Karoly Gr6sz, the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party3 moved and partly was forced by a bloodless revolutionary transformation engineered by the nascent opposition groups to surrender monolithic power and accept a pluralist system-a historic first in Eastern Europe. Subsequently, after strenuous political struggle the opposition and the ruling party accepted a compromise legalising parties and passed the new electoral law in the autumn of 1989, scheduling parliamentary elections for March 1990. These elections, with the exception of the special East German case, were the first pluralist elections in the desocialising East European states. The objective of the present study is the assessment of the nature and scope of the parliamentary elections which completed the systemic replacement and provided the framework for democratic political and economic institutions

Political science · Politics · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Law