HISTORY
Hungary has long been an integral
part of Europe. It converted to Western Christianity before AD
1000. Although Hungary was a monarchy for nearly 1,000 years,
its constitutional system preceded by several centuries the establishment
of Western-style governments in other European countries. Following
the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy (1867-1918) at
the end of World War I, Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory
and nearly as much of its population. It experienced a brief but
bloody communist dictatorship and counterrevolution in 1919, followed
by a 25-year regency under Adm. Miklos Horthy. Although Hungary
fought in most of World War II as a German ally, it fell under
German military occupation following an unsuccessful attempt to
switch sides on October 15,1944. In January 1945, a provisional
government concluded an armistice with the Soviet Union and established
the Allied Control Commission, under which Soviet, American, and
British representatives held complete sovereignty over the country.
The Commission's chairman was a member of Stalin's inner circle
and exercised absolute control.
Communist Takeover
The provisional government, dominated by the Hungarian communist
party (MKP), was replaced in November 1945 after elections which
gave majority control of a coalition government to the Independent
Smallholders' Party. The government instituted a radical land
reform and gradually nationalized mines, electric plants, heavy
industries, and some large banks. The communists ultimately undermined
the coalition regime by discrediting leaders of rival parties
and through terror, blackmail, and framed trials. In elections
tainted by fraud in 1947, the leftist bloc gained control of the
government. Postwar cooperation between the U.S.S.R. and the West
collapsed, and the Cold War began. With Soviet support, Moscow-trained
Matyas Rakosi began to establish a communist dictatorship.
By February 1949, all opposition
parties had been forced to merge with the MKP to form the Hungarian
Workers' Party. In 1949, the communists held a single-list election
and adopted a Soviet-style constitution which created the Hungarian
People's Republic. Rakosi became Prime Minister in 1952. Between
1948 and 1953, the Hungarian economy was reorganized according
to the Soviet model. In 1949, the country joined the Council for
Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA, or Comecon), a Soviet-bloc economic
organization. All private industrial firms with more than 10 employees
were nationalized. Freedom of the press, religion, and assembly
were strictly curtailed. The head of the Roman Catholic Church,
Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Forced industrialization and
land collectivization soon led to serious economic difficulties,
which reached crisis proportions by mid-1953, the year Stalin
died. The new Soviet leaders blamed Rakosi for Hungary's economic
situation and began a more flexible policy called the "New Course."
Imre Nagy replaced Rakosi as prime minister in 1953 and repudiated
much of Rakosi's economic program of forced collectivization and
heavy industry. He also ended political purges and freed thousands
of political prisoners. However, the economic situation continued
to deteriorate, and Rakosi succeeded in disrupting the reforms
and in forcing Nagy from power in 1955 for "right-wing revisionism."
Hungary joined the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact Treaty Organization
the same year. Rakosi's attempt to restore Stalinist orthodoxy
then foundered as increasing opposition developed within the party
and among students and other organizations after Khrushchev's
1956 denunciation of Stalin. Fearing revolution, Moscow replaced
Rakosi with his deputy, Erno Gero, in order to contain growing
ideological and political ferment.
1956 Revolution
Pressure for change reached a climax on October 23, 1956, when
security forces fired on Budapest students marching in support
of Poland's confrontation with the Soviet Union. The ensuing battle
quickly grew into a massive popular uprising. Gero called on Soviet
troops to restore order on October 24. Fighting did not abate
until the Central Committee named Imre Nagy as prime minister
on October 25, and the next day Janos Kadar replaced Gero as party
first secretary. Nagy dissolved the state security police, abolished
the one-party system, promised free elections, and negotiated
with the U.S.S.R. to withdraw its troops.
Faced with reports of new
Soviet troops pouring into Hungary despite Soviet Ambassador Andropov's
assurances to the contrary, on November 1 Nagy announced Hungary's
neutrality and withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. He appealed to
the United Nations and the Western powers for protection of its
neutrality. Preoccupied with the Suez Crisis, the UN and the West
failed to respond, and the Soviet Union launched a massive military
attack on Hungary on November 3. Some 200,000 Hungarians fled
to the West. Nagy and his colleagues took refuge in the Yugoslav
Embassy. Kadar, after delivering an impassioned radio address
on November 1 in support of "our glorious revolution" and vowing
to fight the Russians with his bare hands if they attacked Hungary,
defected from the Nagy cabinet; he fled to the Soviet Union and
on November 4 announced the formation of a new government. He
returned to Budapest and, with Soviet support, carried out severe
reprisals; thousands of people were executed or imprisoned. Despite
a guarantee of safe conduct, Nagy was arrested and deported to
Romania. In June 1958, the government announced that Nagy and
other former officials had been executed.
Reform Under Kadar
In the early 1960s, Kadar announced a new policy under the motto
of "He who is not against us is with us." He declared a general
amnesty, gradually curbed some of the excesses of the secret police,
and introduced a relatively liberal cultural and economic course
aimed at overcoming the post-1956 hostility toward him and his
regime. In 1966, the Central Committee approved the "New Economic
Mechanism," through which it sought to overcome the inefficiencies
of central planning, increase productivity, make Hungary more
competitive in world markets, and create prosperity to ensure
political stability. However, the reform was not as comprehensive
as planned, and basic flaws of central planning produced economic
stagnation. Over the next two decades of relative domestic quiet,
Kadar's government responded to pressure for political and economic
reform and to counterpressures from reform opponents, By the early
1980s, it had achieved some lasting economic reforms and limited
political liberalization and pursued a foreign policy which encouraged
more trade with the West. Nevertheless, the New Economic Mechanism
led to mounting foreign debt incurred to share up unprofitable
industries.
Transition to Democracy
Hungary's transition to a Western-style parliamentary democracy
was the first and the smoothest among the former Soviet bloc,
inspired by a nationalism that long had encouraged Hungarians
to control their own destiny. By 1987, activists within the party
and bureaucracy and Budapest-based intellectuals were increasing
pressure for change. Some of these became reform socialists, while
others began movements which were to develop into parties. Young
liberals formed the Federation of Young Democrats (Fidesz); a
core from the so-called Democratic Opposition formed the Association
of Free Democrats (SZDSZ), and the neopopulist national opposition
established the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF). Civic activism
intensified to a level not seen since the 1956 revolution.
In 1988, Kadar was replaced
as General Secretary of the MKP, and reform communist leader Imre
Pozsgay was admitted to the Politburo. That same year, the Parliament
adopted a "democracy package," which included trade union pluralism;
freedom of association, assembly, and the press; a new electoral
law; and a radical revision of the constitution, among others.
A Central Committee plenum in February 1989 endorsed in principle
the multiparty political system and the characterization of the
October 1956 revolution as a "popular uprising," in the words
of Pozsgay, whose reform movement had been gathering strength
as communist party membership declined dramatically. Kadar's major
political rivals then cooperated to move the country gradually
to democracy. The Soviet Union reduced its involvement by signing
an agreement in April 1989 to withdraw Soviet forces by June 1991.
National unity culminated
in June 1989 as the country reburied Imre Nagy, his associates,
and, symbolically, all other victims of the 1956 revolution. A
national roundtable, comprising representatives of the new parties
and some recreated old parties--such as the Smallholders and Social
Democrats--the communist party, and different social groups, met
in the late summer of 1989 to discuss major changes to the Hungarian
constitution in preparation for free elections and the transition
to a fully free and democratic political system.
In October 1989, the communist
party convened its last congress and re-established itself as
the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP). In a historic session an
October 16-20, 1989, the Parliament adopted legislation providing
for multiparty parliamentary elections and a direct presidential
election. The legislation transformed Hungary from a people's
republic into the Republic of Hungary; guaranteed human and civil
rights; and created an institutional structure that ensures separation
of powers among the judicial, executive, and legislative branches
of government. But because the national roundtable agreement was
the result of a compromise between communist and noncommunist
parties and societal forces, the revised constitution still retained
vestiges of the old order. It championed the "values of bourgeois
democracy and democratic socialism" and gave equal status to public
and private property. Such provisions were erased in 1990 as the
need for compromise solutions was obviated by the poor performance
of the MSZP in the first free elections.
Free Elections and a Democratic
Hungary
The first free parliamentary election, held in May 1990, was a
plebiscite of sorts on the communist past. The revitalized and
reformed communists performed poorly despite having more than
the usual advantages of an "incumbent" party. Populist, center-right,
and liberal parties fared best, with the Democratic Forum (MDF)
winning 43% of the vote and the Free Democrats (SZDSZ) capturing
24%. Under Prime Minister Jozsef Antall, the MDF formed a center-right
coalition government with the Independent Smallholders' Party
(FKGP) and the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP) to command
a 60% majority in the parliament. Parliamentary opposition parties
included SZDSZ, the Socialists (MSZP), and the Alliance of Young
Democrats (Fidesz). Peter Boross succeeded as Prime Minister after
Antall died in December 1993. Thc Antall/Boross coalition governments
achieved a reasonably well-functioning parliamentary democracy
and laid the foundation for a free market economy.
In May 1994, the socialists came back to win a plurality of votes and 54% of the seats after an election campaign focused largely on economic issues and the substantial decline in living standards since 1990. A heavy turnout of voters swept away the right-of-center coalition but soundly rejected extremists on both right and left. Despite its neocommunist pedigree, the MSZP continued economic reforms and privatization, adopting a painful but necessary policy of fiscal austerity (the "Bokros plan") in 1995. The government pursued a foreign policy of integration with Euro-Atlantic institutions and reconciliation with neighboring countries. But neither an invitation to join NATO nor improving economic indicators guaranteed the MSZP's re-election; dissatisfaction with the pace of economic recovery, rising crime, and cases of government corruption convinced voters to propel center-right parties into power following national elections in May 1998. The Federation of Young Democrats (renamed Fidesz-Hungarian Civic Party (MPP) in 1995) captured a plurality of parliamentary seats and forged a coalition with the Smallholders and the Democratic Forum. The new government, headed by 35-year-old Prime Minister Viktor Orban promised to stimulate faster growth, curb inflation, and lower taxes. Although the Orban administration also pledged continuity in foreign policy, and continued to pursue Euro-Atlantic integration as its first priority, it was a more vocal advocate of minority rights for ethnic Hungarians abroad than the previous government.
In April 2002, the country voted to return the MSZP-Free Democrat coalition to power. The new government, led by Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy, had a very slim majority in Parliament following the closest elections of the post-communist era. The Medgyessy government placed special emphasis on solidifying Hungary's Euro-Atlantic course, which culminated in Hungary’s accession to the European Union on May 1, 2004. Prime Minister Medgyessy resigned in August 2004 after losing coalition support following an attempted cabinet reshuffle. Ferenc Gyurcsany was selected by the governing coalition to succeed Medgyessy, and he was confirmed by the Parliament on September 29, 2004.
In the April 2006 election Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany and his Socialist-liberal coalition were re-elected, the first time since communism that a sitting government has renewed its mandate. The current coalition between MSZP and SZDSZ makes up the parliamentary majority with 210 seats. However, it does not have the “super majority” to produce the two-thirds vote necessary to enact constitutional, legal, and procedural changes. The present configuration of Parliament includes MSZP with 190 seats, SZDSZ with 20 seats, Fidesz with 164 seats, MDF with 11 seats, and the independent Somogyert party with one seat. The Prime Minister has reduced the number of ministries in the cabinet from 17 to 12. The new cabinet has eight ministers from the MSZP party, three ministers from the SZDSZ party, and one independent minister.
