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Hopes and concerns of democratization: Ideas about popular vote in Hungarian political discourse 1985–1989
5-27Views:72The article analyzes the political discourse concerning direct democracy between 1985–89, when the issue of introducing popular vote at local and national level became relevant, both as a general institutional reform of political decision-making, and as the result of some major initiatives launched by social movements. The analysis covers the related law journal articles, party-state documents, the writings of political and intellectual elites (including the opposition), and the wider public (mainly daily and weekly newspapers). The discourse analysis is based on the academic literature of direct democracy and some new aspects, like the timing of introducing direct democracy, its role and perspectives, the consideration of threats and benefits, and the relevance of international examples as possible models for reform. The paper finds that the opposition and the party-state regarded the introduction of popular vote differently: while the emerging opposition emphasised the function of controling the state power by popular votes, the party-state expected to stop shrinking its social legitimacy. Meanwhile, general public seemed to be indifferent about this remarkable democratic reform.
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The characteristics of employers' (and employees') behaviour in a rural border area today, based on interviews
162-180Views:33Clichéd as it may seem, it is undeniably true that the employment situation in Hungary is bad. The profound transformation of the economy and society in 1989-1990 brought about fundamental changes in the labour market. The main features of this were the disappearance of full employment and the emergence and persistence of unemployment. The economic activity of the Hungarian population declined significantly, due to, among other things, the disappearance or restructuring of enterprises and cooperatives, the fall in production and turnover, and the more intensive use of labour under new conditions, while the number of economically inactive increased.
To avoid unemployment, people opted en masse for pensions or pension-like benefits, while young people stayed in school longer in the hope of better job prospects and, even with a much lower birth rate, the number of people still using home-based forms of childcare was essentially the same as before. After 1998, the number of inactive people fell slightly, but in 2009 the number of 15-64 year olds was still 2.6 million, about 7% (166,000) higher than in 1992. Employment fell significantly in the years following the change of regime, mainly as a result of the transformation of the economy. It reached its lowest point in 1996, when some 3.6 million people were in work, 1.3 million fewer than in the period of regime change.
