Julia Szalai

Debate on the enlargement of the European Union The enlargement crisis of the European Union: limits of the dialectics of integration and expansion

The enlargement crisis of the EU has been triggered by problems related to enlargement towards the east but its roots extend far beyond that issue. To date, European integration has developed within a structure of a wealthy core territory and concentric circles around this centre. The emergence of this pattern has been driven by the dialectics of integration and expansion. But the institutional obstacles and legitimation problems linked to EU eastward enlargement indicate that very little room for manoeuvre remains for future expansion of the EU. As the expansion process reaches its limits, differentiated forms of EU integration, creating different classes of EU members, are likely to appear.

The Puzzle of Success: Hungarian Entrepreneurs at the Turn of the Millennium

Abstract Drawing on in-depth interview-based research carried out around ‘the turn of the millennium’, this article examines the emergence of medium and large entrepreneurs in post-socialist Hungary. It seeks to identify the skills necessary to successfully manage property amid the harsh circumstances of the post-socialist socio-economic crisis, and points to the importance of the pre-transition life histories and occupational experiences of the new entrepreneurs. By analysing their family histories and traditional routes of schooling, it shows how the emerging bourgeoisie accumulated knowledge, skills, and the necessary forms of habitual behaviour to construct, within a surprisingly short time, a firm social standing and widespread influence. In the concluding part of this article, an attempt is made to combine the economic and sociological findings discussed here, and also to propose some theoretical conclusions.

Siromaštvo i zamke postkomunističkih socijalnih reformi u Mađarskoj: Novi izazovi pridruživanja EU

During the transition and accession process in Hungary the questions of the fairness and efficiency of the welfare arrangements came to the forefront of public discussions and political contestation. The key questions concerned the type of welfare state arising on the ruins of the old state-socialist regime. The author investigates whether new welfare state resembles any of the “three worlds of welfare capitalism”, what is the role of the EU in their formation, and whether differences are merely a matter of the level of economic development or deep-rooted systemic causes and policies. The first part of the paper outlines competing visions on the transformation of the socialist state and it is followed by the presentation of ideological and political arguments standing behind the implemented measures in the field of social policy and the wider role of these measures in overall economic transformation. The author argues that the consequences of these measures in social policy, most notably increased poverty, though often considered as transitory, proved to be more permanent. Also, economic recovery has not brought the improvement of social services and local welfare assistance as expected. The second part of the paper offers a critical review of causes that brought about such a contrast between the declared goals and the actual results of the reform. The author argues that, contrary to the initial expectations of increased efficiency, batter targeting, and more social justice, the combined steps of funding cuts and decentralization of decisions failed to decrease poverty, while at the same time increased stigmatizing of recipients. The author concludes that Hungary’s recent developments point toward the crystallization of a distinguishable fourth type of the welfare state developing more or less independently from the influence of supranational welfare arrangements of the EU.

My fifty‐six, your fifty‐six, their fifty‐six: Teenagers on the revolution

Conventional wisdom places the revolution of 1956 in a central place in the identity of the modern Hungarian nation. However, for three decades discussion of the nature of that event was not permitted, and an official interpretation was presented in schools and in the mass media. A survey of the attitudes of schoolchildren in the 1990s towards those events reveals complex views, including both a sense that the experience was a private one to individuals and families, and that it is of little relevance today: demands for retribution and justice are seen to be dwelling on the past at a time when the whole nation has moved on and should be concentrating on the problems of the present and the future.