Simulating the great transformation: property change under prolonged informality in Hungary

Abstract

Transformations of society-wide organizing principles or, ‘systemic’ features, of property relations are rare historical occurrences and constitute crucial aspects of social change. The recent architectonic rearrangement of the societies of East-Central Europe is especially remarkable as it represents a move away from a unique, very large-scale, comprehensive social experiment concerning the use of state power in establishing and maintaining putative ‘socialist property’ as a ‘systemic’ principle. The ongoing move away from that experiment—the post-state-socialist transition—is a vector with an unmistakable point of departure and a quite nebulous direction.