THE SOCIALIST SYSTEM AND ITS COLLAPSE IN HUNGARY: AN INTERPRETATION IN TERMS OF MODERNISATION THEORY

Abstract

Modernisation theory is considered to be the best framework to interpret the socialist period and the collapse of the socialist system. Modernisation is defined here as a combination of five processes: 1. structural changes; 2. an improvement in living standards; 3. the development of a welfare system; 4. democratisation; 5. the development of modern values and norms. During the socialist period, structural changes usually went in the direction of modernisation in that living conditions were improved, albeit more slowly than in the market economies, while the welfare system was dysfunctional. The greatest obstacle to further modernisation was seen to be the absence of values and norms which provide the basis for the functioning of a modern economy and society. The cause of this value crisis was the initially totalitarian and later authoritarian character of the system. The failure of the modernisation process delegitimised the political system, and subsequent popular pressure to change the system was the main cause of its collapse. After the revolution, the political system was wholly democratised, but the former socialist countries are confronted with serious economic decline, which will hopefully be turned around in the coming years. A thoroughgoing reform of social policy is needed but not so easily implemented. The development of the `civic virtues', values and norms needed for an efficient market economy and the functioning of political democracy might take several decades.