The Political Economy of State-Society Relations in Hungary and Poland

Abstract

The profound transformations that preceded the downfall of Communism originated in Poland and Hungary, but played out in strikingly different ways. Hungary led through economic reform, Poland through open political struggle. Analysis of these transformational variants yields important insights into systemic change, marketization, and democratization. This book shows how these changes were possible in authoritarian regimes as, over time, state and society became mutually vulnerable, neither fully able to dictate the terms of engagement. For Poland this meant principled confrontation; for Hungary, innovative accommodation. This book argues that different conceptual frameworks and strategies of persuasion account for these divergences in virtually identical institutional settings. Seleny traces the different political-institutional residues which, in both Hungary and Poland, now function as constraining or enabling legacies. In particular, she demonstrates that state socialist legacies account for salient differences between these two new capitalist democracies, and now condition their prospects in the European Union.

Dead But Not Gone: Contemporary Legacies of Communism, Imperialism, and Authoritarianism

“…70-71); the skills to successfully navigate politics (Grzymala-Busse 2002); economic beliefs (Baxandall 2003); preferences for radical right parties (Minkenberg 2009); overall diminished mass support for democracy and markets (Pop-Eleches & Tucker 2017); and, particularly in the case of the former Soviet Union, anti-Russian sentiments (Peisakhin 2015, Rozenas et al 2017. Other legacies relate to the sorts of coalitions, or more broadly social networks, that formed under communist rule and succeeded in influencing postcommunist regime diversity (Kitschelt et al 1999); the pace of economic reform and party competition (Seleny 2006); and the shape of postcommunist capitalism (Stark & Bruszt 1998, Bohle & Greskovits 2012.…”

Techno-economic transformation in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union – A neo-Schumpeterian perspective

“…A second (informal) economy was essential to the socialist system's reproduction by helping to alleviate consumer shortages and bureaucratic bottlenecks (Sampson, 1987;Portes and Borocz, 1988). An increasingly diversified 'second economy', whose production and exchange networks eventually suffused the entire economic system with an increasingly marked degree of 'rationality', was essential to Hungarian growth and a peaceful transition into a market economy during the 1980s (Seleny, 2006). In the context of the post-Soviet transition of the 1990s and contemporary Russia, Ledeneva (2006Ledeneva ( , 2013 shows how informal networks among professionals and power networks which all operate along the legal system are essential to understand how sistema works (ibid, 2013)…”

Revisiting Recognition and Redistribution and Extending the Borders

“…This placed them at a great disadvantage in the transition to the market economy after the fall of the old regime. The Roma lacked access to social and economic resources enjoyed by large segments of the Hungarian population, such as tools and equipment for extra employment social networks for selling and trading goods (Seleny, 2006). Szalai (2003 and2014) makes the important point that the exclusion of the Roma from this potential opportunity for gaining a foothold in the new market economy was not just the result of structural inequalities but also a conscious political strategy to appease the dominant majority, who would also feel the brunt of liberalized market structures.…”