Comments on: Hungary faces rude awakening from welfare state dreams

By: Global Voices Online » Hungary: Attitudes, Politics, Economy

Global Voices Online » Hungary: Attitudes, Politics, Economy — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:31:17 +0000

[...] McGrath of A Fistful of Euros writes about Hungary's politics and economy – and the fact that 61 percent of Hungarians seem to [...]

By: pampero

pampero — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:26:09 +0000

In 1971, when I was in Budapest, I drove the Hungarian-born wife of a friend to a theater where she was going to see some satirical skits (I didn’t go in since I didn’t speak Hungarian) but she told me there were many political jokes being told in those theaters. So there was already quite a bit of leeeway before 1980

By: By The Fault » Blog Archive » Linking Up with the World

By The Fault » Blog Archive » Linking Up with the World — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:07:04 +0000

[...] Miss Their Welfare State Fistfulofeuros reports that ” recent poll showing that most Hungarians preferred life under communism caused [...]

By: bmeisen

bmeisen — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:24:09 +0000

Thanks for the report. Hungry rarely shows up on my radar here in Frankfurt. A current local topic may tie in though. The Hessian state legislature voted yesterday to strike down a 3-year-old law that allowed universities to charge a modest tuition fee, about 1000 Euros/yr. Starting soon university education in Hessen will again be virtually free.

As an academic I am disappointed because the income from tuition was used to fund my job. Others are disappointed for less selfish reasons. In the opinion of many members of the teaching staff, the modest fees truly improved the quality of education. Removing them means going back to insufficient administrative support, hoards of students demanding to be added to course lists, professors intensifying their efforts to exploit their priviliges to the max because in many cases the alternative is simply withering.

The students are claiming victory, and it is indeed a victory. They organized and struggled against the CDU government that introduced the tuition fees, going into the streets on many occasions, disrupting traffic, facing down the police. As a result their education will likely suffer.

I ask myself if the students are really that selfless and the answer seems in some cases to be yes. Recent elections undermined the CDU majority and the new law is the fruit of a block on the left composed of Social Dems, Greens and Leftists, a block that doesn’t have the majority to name a prime minister but enough votes on this issue. The university trains the manager/professional class. SPD, Greens and LInke represent the workers the way that no party in the USA does, and these workers are self-confident. They argue that better education for managers and professionals, their bosses, means harder times for workers. Weak universities are therefore a necessary evil if the commonweal is to be optimized.

Why not? The USA, home of the greatest universities in the world, has the worst social insurance system of any advanced country. Maybe the Hungarians are right to long for the good old days?

By: Varangy

Varangy — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:44:12 +0000

The release of a recent poll showing that most Hungarians preferred life under communism caused a mild shock in the foreign community, but provoked little more than a characteristic shrug from Hungarians.

The +200,000 or so Hungarians that fled in ’56, plus the countless that trickled out later, might be to differ.

After all, under János Kádár Hungary was one of the least repressive regimes in the Soviet bloc, the “Goulash Communism” of the 1980s allowed a certain amount of private business, inflation was unheard of, while the state was able to borrow on Western markets to fund a generous health and welfare system.

Will someone please, please stop the soft-peddling of Hungarian communism?

By: Fidel Pardussi

Fidel Pardussi — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:38:03 +0000

Wow! Desmond, welcome to AFOE and what a start. If all your contributions are anywhere near the standard of your first one then we’re in for a treat.

Thanks and good luck!