In 1988 the country had about 10.6 million inhabitants. Population had grown slowly since the late 1970s and had begun to decline in 1981. In 1986 about 19.2 percent of the population lived in Budapest, the country's cultural, political, and economic center. Beginning in 1978, for the first time in the country's history, more people lived in urban centers than in rural areas. By 1988 about 62 percent of the populace lived in urban centers with populations exceeding 10,000.
In the late 1980s, more than 96 percent of the people were ethnic Magyars. The minority, or non-Magyar, population was small and included Germans, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Romanians, Jews, Gypsies, and Greeks. Most non-Magyars were bilingual, speaking both their own languages and Hungarian.
The combined impact of World War II and the communist takeover in 1947 brought about great changes in the social structure. For more than a decade, the new communist government sought to create a classless society through various forms of social engineering. Beginning in the 1960s, these efforts gave way to more indirect methods of social and economic control. The pace of change slowed, and a social structure took shape that once again contained clearly stratified groups. In its new form, society did not display the extremes of wealth and poverty characteristic of the interwar period. However, as the country's economic difficulties increased in the 1980s, tensions appeared to build between the wealthy elites and the sizable disadvantaged groups in society. Public discussion acknowledged these growing tensions and debated methods for overcoming them.
The family remained the basic social unit. The state recognized marriage as a secular institution and held the stability of families to be a desirable social goal. However, observers in the 1980s identified a number of sources of family stress that appeared to contribute to a high rate of divorce.
After the communist assumption of power in the late 1940s, several mass organizations--official trade unions, the National Council of Hungarian Women, and the Communist Youth League--were established to interpret for various segments of the population the social and political goals of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, to mobilize support for it, and to serve as centers of a collective social life. But in the late 1980s, these organizations were losing members, and they faced growing competition from new unofficial groups that emerged in the relaxed political atmosphere.
According to Western estimates, in the late 1980s about 67.5 percent of the population was Roman Catholic, 20 percent was Reformed (Calvinist), 5 percent was Lutheran, and 5 percent was unaffiliated. The country also contained smaller groups of Uniates (Catholics of the Eastern Rite), Greek Orthodox, various small Protestant sects, and Jews. In 1989 the government abolished the State Office for Church Affairs, which had supervised the churches. A proposal for new law submitted for public discussion in 1989 was intended to eliminate almost all restrictions on the churches.
The country's education system provided free, compulsory schooling for young people from six to sixteen years of age. About half of all students attended general schools (also known as elementary schools) for eight years and then completed their education through vocational training. The remainder continued their studies in a four-year gymnasium (a secondary school for university preparation) or trade school. The general schools curriculum stressed technical and vocational training. In the 1980s, almost 10 percent of the population aged eighteen to twenty-two was enrolled in regular daytime courses of study at institutions of higher learning.
In the late 1980s, the state health care and pension systems were highly centralized. Medical care was free to all citizens. However, many physicians maintained private practices, and people who could afford to receive care on a private basis often preferred to do so. Availability of medical personnel and hospital beds was high by international standards. The country's pension system, although extensive, was the object of considerable criticism in the 1980s because of the low levels of support provided to many retirees.
In the late 1980s, the bounds of permissible expression in Hungary suddenly had become wide by East European standards. Authorities had lifted most traditional prohibitions. Opposition groups were able to function legally. Consequently, the country experienced a quickening and enlivening of cultural and intellectual life.
Since World War II, Hungary has exhibited several population trends that parallel those in other advanced societies. Population leveled off after the war and even began to decline. The birth rate fell, and people flocked from the countryside to the cities, especially to the major urban areas. Historical Trends
Trianon Hungary emerged from World War I with reduced borders roughly coterminous with Hungary's present-day borders. In 1920 Hungary had about 8 million inhabitants, and by 1941 the population had grown to approximately 9.3 million. But the country lost about 5 percent of its population in World War II, so as of 1949 the population was only about 8.8 million. Thereafter, the growth rate of the population fluctuated substantially. Until the mid-1950s, high fertility and declining mortality caused rapid population growth. In 1954 the highest postwar live-birth rate was reached, at 23 births per 1,000 population. Subsequently, until the mid-1960s the birth rate declined, but the mortality rate was also low. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the birth rate again rose, partly because of demographic measures introduced by the government in 1967 and 1973. Because the overall population had begun to age, the mortality rate also increased during this period, but it was counterbalanced by the higher rate of live births.
<>Birth Rate,
Marriage and Death
<>Settlement Patterns
Beginning in the late 1970s, the birth rate declined and mortality increased. By the early 1980s, Hungary's growth rate had become one of the lowest in the world. More ominously, beginning in 1981, deaths outnumbered births. Over the 1980s, population decreased absolutely after peaking at a post-World War II high of 10.7 million in 1980. Thus, the 1988 census reported that about 10.6 million people lived in the country.
In 1986 the birth rate was 12.1 per 1,000 population, up slightly from the postwar low of 11.8 per 1,000 in 1984. However, as recently as 1975 the birth rate had been 18.4 per 1,000, and in 1948 the birth rate had been 21 per 1,000. One major reason for the overall decline of the birth rate appeared to be the increasing number of highly educated and economically active women who, as in other countries, tended to have fewer children. Age appeared to play no role in the declining birth rate. In 1986 women married at an average age of 24.6 years, a figure only slightly higher than in 1948, when the average age was 24.5. In the 1980s, the typical family had only two children (reflecting a dramatic decrease from the final decades of the nineteenth century, when the average number of children per family had been five).
Overall the population of the country was aging. A growing proportion of the population was aged fifty-five or older, increasing from 19.6 percent of the population in 1960 to 24.5 percent in 1988. By contrast, in 1988 the proportion of the population under fifteen was about 21 percent, which reflected a decrease of about 4 percent since 1949 and resulted from the declining birth rate.
Marriage rates fell steadily from the mid-970s to the mid1980s. In 1975 the marriage rate was 9.9 per 1,000. By 1986 that number had declined to 6.8 per 1,000. Moreover, in 1980 for the first time, the number of marriages that ended because of death or divorce outnumbered the number of marriages that took place. In 1980 the number of "marriages ceased" because of death and divorce was 9.2 per 1,000 population. That number rose to 9.3 by 1983, then fell slightly back to 9.2 by 1986.
Death rates were relatively high, and they were rising. In 1986 the death rate was 13.8 per 1,000, as compared with 12.4 per 1,000 in 1975. In 1986 life expectancy averaged sixty-eight years, up from about sixty-six years in 1975. For women in 1986, the average life span was almost seventy-two years; for men, it was just under sixty-five years.
In 1945 only 35 percent of the population lived in urban areas. After 1945 much of the population moved from the country's less developed counties to Budapest and later to its suburbs and to the industrial counties of Hajdú-Bihar and Borsod-Abaúj- Zemplen. The number of urban dwellers grew by more than 50 percent from 1949 to 1984. In 1978, for the first time in the country's history, more people lived in urban centers than in rural areas. In 1949 the population density was about 100 persons per square kilometer. By the 1980s, that figure had climbed to about 117 persons per square kilometer.
In the late 1980s, nine cities had populations greater than 100,000. Budapest, the country's focal point for government, culture, industry, trade, and transport, was by far the largest city, with 2.1 million inhabitants, or 19.2 percent of the country's population. Other major population centers were Debrecen, with 217,000 inhabitants; Miskolc, with 210,000; Szeged, with 188,000; Pecs, with 182,000; Györ, with 131,000; Nyiregyhaza, with 119,000; Szekesfehervar, with 113,000; and Kecskemet, with 105,000. In 1988 the country had a total of 143 urban centers with more than 10,000 inhabitants, where about 62 percent of the population lived.
As of 1988, the country had 2,915 settlements with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, where 38 percent of the people made their homes. Beginning in the 1950s, the smallest villages, or those with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, tended to lose their residents. However, the number of people leaving the villages decreased every year after 1960. Whereas in 1960 about 259,000 people left the villages permanently, that number declined to about 129,000 in 1986. The number of people leaving the villages exceeded the number coming to the countryside by approximately 52,000 people in 1960. That number had declined to 37,769 in 1980 and 20,814 in 1986.
In the 1980s, a substantial number of persons of Hungarian origin lived outside the country. Many of these lived in neighboring countries. Others had moved even farther from their homeland. In the three decades before World War I, some 3 million ethnic Hungarian peasants had fled to the United States to escape rural poverty. During and after the Revolution of 1956, about 250,000 people left the country, traveling first to Austria and Yugoslavia and eventually emigrating to Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Switzerland, the United States, and West Germany. In the late 1980s, about 40 percent of all persons of Hungarian origin were living outside Hungary.
As a result of population transfers after World War II, Hungary became one of the most ethnically homogeneous countries in Eastern Europe. Unlike most Europeans, Hungarians trace their lineage to the Finno-Ugric people--an Asiatic tribe. For this reason, Hungarians have long felt themselves to be distinct from the other peoples who live in their midst.
Ethnic discrimination--except toward the Gypsies--was almost nonexistent in Hungary in the 1980s. Particularly after the late 1960s, the government had made great efforts to ensure fair and equal treatment for minority nationalities. Foreign policy considerations partially explained this liberal policy toward minorities. The Romanian and, to a lesser extent, the Czechoslovak governments subjected Hungarians in their countries to many kinds of discrimination. To provide these governments with incentives to relax their pressure against Hungarian minorities, Budapest pursued very liberal policies toward its own national minorities and sought to make its minority policies a model for other countries in Eastern Europe.
<>Origins and
Language
<>Minority Groups
The Hungarian people are thought to have originated in an ancient Finno-Ugric population that originally inhabited the forested area between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains. Sometime between the first and fifth centuries A.D., after the Ugric and Finnic peoples had split, Ugric tribes in the eastern portion of the territory moved farther south, intermingling with nomadic Bulgar-Turkish peoples. Some of these tribes settled in the Carpathian Basin in the ninth century A.D. and became the direct ancestors of today's inhabitants of Hungary. The proper name for the largest ethnic group in Hungary is Magyar. The word is a derivative of Megyeri, supposedly the name of one of the original ten Magyar tribes. Magyar refers specifically to both the language and the ethnic group. The words Hungary and Hungarian are derivatives of a Slavicized form of the Turkic words on ogur, meaning "ten arrows," which may have referred to the number of Magyar tribes.
Hungarian is the country's only official language. It is a member of the Finno-Ugric family of languages, unrelated to the Indo-European language family, which contains the major European languages. Within Europe, Hungarian is related to Finnish, Estonian, Komi, and several lesser-known languages spoken in parts of the Ural Mountain region in the Soviet Union. It has a heavy admixture of Turkish, Slavic, German, Latin, and French words. Hungarian is written in Latin characters. The various dialects are intelligible to all Hungarians throughout the country.
In the 1980s, more than 96 percent of the population consisted of ethnic Magyars. Major transfers of population had occurred after World War II. Substantial numbers of Germans, Czechs, and Slovaks were resettled in neighboring countries, and many Hungarians outside the country's borders moved to Hungary. Today Hungary has few ethnic minority inhabitants. In the 1980s, the population included roughly 230,000 Germans; slightly more than 100,000 Slovaks; about 100,000 Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (often grouped together as South Slavs); and about 30,000 Romanians. In the late 1980s, the Romanian population in the country increased significantly as thousands of Romanians fled conditions in their homeland and sought refuge in Hungary. About one-third of these emigres were ethnic Romanians, and the remainder were Hungarian-speaking Romanians. In addition, about 500,000 Gypsies, 150,000 Jews, and 4,000 Greeks lived in Hungary. The Jewish community was a mere remnant of the Jewish population that had lived in the country before World War II. During the war, as many as 540,000 Jews and 60,000 Gypsies were deported to Nazi extermination camps.
Most of the non-Magyar nationalities were bilingual, speaking both their own languages and Hungarian. In the 1980 census, less than 1 percent of the population actually registered as members of national minorities, although a far greater number expressed interest in aspects of their ethnic culture. National minorities did not usually form separate communities but lived interspersed among the entire population.
The Constitution, as well as a sizable body of law, guarantees the cultural rights of recognized national minorities. The Constitution promises them equal rights as citizens, protection against discrimination, and access to education in their own languages from kindergarten to university level. Minorities have been able to promote their national cultures through freedom of association in federations, ethnic clubs, and artistic endeavors. They have been able to use their own language in official procedures and could publish newspapers and periodicals, and broadcast radio and television programs in their own tongue. Actual government policy in the 1980s was fairly consistent with these promises. In 1984 approximately 55,000 minority students were receiving instruction in their mother tongue in elementary and secondary schools, up from 21,615 students in 1968. When ethnic students did not find the requisite opportunities at domestic institutions of higher education, they could study at appropriate foreign universities. All national minorities had weekly newspapers and other publications and sponsored various cultural activities. As public discussion in the late 1980s noted, however, the minorities had not shared equally in the economic advances of recent decades.
Jews and Gypsies were not officially recognized as national minorities, being defined rather as a "religious community" and an "ethnic community," respectively. However, the Jews occupied a more favorable position in Hungary than they did in other states in Eastern Europe. The country's 150,000 Jews formed the third largest Jewish community on the European continent, being smaller than the Jewish communities in the Soviet Union and France. They maintained a high school, library, museum, kosher butcher shops, an orphanage, a home for the elderly, a rabbinical seminary, a factory producing matzo, and about thirty synagogues. Several publications, including newspapers, served the Jewish population.
The situation of the half million Gypsies, traditionally a poor and marginal element in society and subject to discrimination, was far less favorable. In 1987 about 75 percent of the Gypsies were living at or below the poverty level. About half of them lived in settled conditions, holding down jobs. Most spoke Hungarian. The Gypsy population had a birth rate that was more than twice as high as that of the rest of the population. This circumstance, and the fact that the Gypsy crime rate was disproportionately high, contributed to an apparently growing hostility to Gypsies among the Hungarian population. Many citizens perceived the government's special programs for Gypsies as undeserved favoritism that deprived the rest of the population of needed resources.
In the mid-1980s, in contrast to its earlier policy of encouraging cultural assimilation, the government began to foster a Gypsy ethnic and cultural identity and a sense of community and tradition to enhance the self-esteem of the Gypsy population. In mid-1985 the government established the National Gypsy Council to represent Gypsy concerns to the government and to assist in carrying out measures involving the Gypsies. In 1986 the Cultural Association of Gypsies in Hungary was founded to help preserve and foster Gypsy culture. In 1987 a Gypsy newspaper was established. Despite these signs of progress, Gypsies remained particularly vulnerable as the economic climate deteriorated in the 1980s. With minimal skills, education, and training, they were among the first to lose their jobs as unemployment increased. Their health and living standard remained well below the national average.
Before World War II, Hungarian society was characterized by striking inequalities in economic and social status. Landownership was the principal source of wealth, because the country was still predominantly rural and agricultural. The poverty of millions of landless laborers stood in stark contrast to the wealth of a small elite of landowners, bankers, and prominent businessmen. Early efforts at industrialization provided few alternative employment opportunities for the impoverished agricultural labor force.
The destruction and turmoil of World War II greatly disrupted the traditional social structure. After the communists assumed power in 1947, society was in flux for almost two decades. The aim of the new government was to replace the old order with a new social structure that was in line with Marxist-Leninist ideology. The pace of change slowed in the early 1960s as the government reduced its efforts at social engineering. By the early 1970s, society had settled into a discernible pattern in which clear-cut social strata were beginning to reemerge. Changes that continued to affect the social system during the 1970s and 1980s resulted largely from economic growth and urbanization rather than from the efforts of communist social planners.
<>Interwar Period
<>Postwar Societal
Transformation
<>Social Relations in
the 1980s
<>The Elite
<>The Disadvantaged
Until World War II, striking inequalities distinguished the distribution of wealth, power, privilege, and opportunity among social groups. The various social strata had different codes of behavior and distinctive dress, speech, and manners. Respect showed to persons varied according to the source of their wealth. Wealth derived from possession of land was valued more highly than that coming from trade or banking. The country was predominantly rural, and landownership was the central factor in determining the status and prestige of most families. In some of the middle and upper strata of society, noble birth was also an important criterion as was, in some cases, the holding of certain occupations. An intricate system of ranks and titles distinguished the various social stations. Hereditary titles designated the aristocracy and gentry. Persons who had achieved positions of eminence, whether or not they were of noble birth, often received nonhereditary titles from the state. The gradations of rank derived from titles had great significance in social intercourse and in the relations between the individual and the state. Among the rural population, which consisted largely of peasants and which made up the overwhelming majority of the country's people, distinctions derived from such factors as the size of a family's landholding; whether the family owned the land and hired help to work it, owned and worked the land itself, or worked for others; and family reputation. The prestige and respect accompanying landownership were evident in many facets of life in the countryside, from finely shaded modes of polite address, to special church seating, to selection of landed peasants to fill public offices.
On the eve of World War II, about 4 percent of the population owned more than half the country's wealth. Landowners, wealthy bankers, aristocrats and gentry, and various commercial leaders made up the elite. Together, these groups accounted for only 13 percent of the population. Between 10 and 18 percent of the population consisted of the petite bourgeoisie and the petty gentry, various government officials, intellectuals, retail store owners, and well-to-do professionals. More than two-thirds of the remaining population lived in varying degrees of poverty. Their only real chance for upward mobility lay in becoming civil servants, but such advancement was difficult because of the exclusive nature of the education system. The industrial working class was growing, but the largest group remained the peasantry, most of whom had too little land or none at all.
Although the interwar years witnessed considerable cultural and economic progress in the country, the social structure changed little. A great chasm remained between the gentry, both social and intellectual, and the rural "people." Jews held a place of prominence in the country's economic, social, and political life. They constituted the bulk of the middle class. During the first four decades of the twentieth century, Jews made up more than one-fifth of the population of Budapest. They were well assimilated, worked in a variety of professions, and were of various political persuasions.
Even before the communists came to power in 1947, the turbulent years of World War II had weakened or eliminated much of the old stratified society. Devastation from the fighting in 1944 and 1945, land reforms instituted by the government in 1945, and the nationalization of commerce and industry between 1948 and 1953 destroyed the economic base of the old social system. The country lost about 300,000 Jews, including much of the Jewish business community, to various war-related causes--deportation, massacre, disease, and hunger. Only about 260,500, mostly from Budapest, survived.
After the communist takeover, the traditional ruling class was virtually eliminated. More extensive land reform undertaken by the new regime eventually collectivized the majority of the peasantry. In the countryside, anti-kulak measures and compulsory deliveries of produce to the state at extremely low prices destroyed the prosperous peasant class. (In 1948 the term kulak came to be defined officially as anyone who owned more than seven hectares of land or had a landed income roughly approximating such ownership. Political conditions caused many with less property also to feel threatened.) Rampant inflation disrupted all aspects of economic life.
In keeping with Marxist-Leninist ideology, during the first decade of communist rule the government sought to create a classless society through policies such as equalization of incomes, collectivization of agriculture, expropriation of property, and tight control over educational opportunities. On the remaining peasants with average incomes and on prosperous peasants, the government imposed steeply progressive income taxes and requisitioned large amounts of produce. Collectivization in the early 1950s caused many peasants to seek alternatives to agriculture. Many retained their rural residences but commuted daily or weekly to other jobs, leaving part of the family to continue some agricultural work. Others moved to entirely new jobs, as government policies promoted rapid development of heavy industry.
The social and economic changes that took place after World War II promoted social mobility. During the early years of forced industrialization and continuing to a lesser extent until the early 1960s, the prewar worker strata and peasant strata had enhanced opportunities to rise into white-collar positions. Large numbers of peasants entered the industrial labor force, and the bureaucracy, which grew as a result of centralized planning, was open to persons from all social groups.
Some downward mobility also occurred. Disincentives for formerly independent professionals, crafts people, and merchants were overwhelming. Opportunities also dwindled for prewar executives and managers. Members of the old elite lost property and political power and were forced into the middle or lower class. A large percentage of the prewar elite left the country.
Despite such mobility in the early 1950s, an inegalitarian social system remained in place. The new political elite enjoyed material and symbolic privileges, such as access to special stores containing scarce goods or the free use of secluded and well-guarded villas, that separated it from the rest of the population. A second stratum of the elite consisted of valuable persons such as directors of large enterprises and of the best collective farms. They too lived in comparative luxury. The new elite also included intellectuals who endorsed the party and its interests. Their task was to provide legitimacy for the new regime. In return, they enjoyed living standards superior to those of the working class.
In the aftermath of the Revolution of 1956, career restrictions on the prewar middle class and intellectuals began to ease somewhat as the government ceased most of its social engineering efforts. Among workers and peasants, political loyalty, although important, could no longer serve as a vehicle for upward mobility in the absence of other qualifications; a person also needed to have appropriate educational credentials or skills. However, political considerations remained paramount for persons who wanted to be part of the ruling political elite.
As the economic reforms introduced in the 1960s increasingly affected all aspects of society, stratified social groups again made their appearance. By the mid-1970s, the regime's objective of a classless society appeared to be increasingly unattainable. To reconcile ideology with these realities, ideologists began modifying Marxist theory. The regime all but abandoned the goal of a classless society, ideologists arguing that in a socialist industrial society certain skills and occupations were more necessary than others. Thus, those persons with greater skills and responsibilities should receive more compensation than those making less valuable contributions. Ideologists rationalized society's inequalities by maintaining that socioeconomic distinctions that evolved under a communist system were qualitatively different from those found in capitalist countries.
In the 1980s, society was complex and highly differentiated. Social scientists agreed that the traditional Marxist-Leninist description of the workers, peasants, and intellectuals all cooperating to build socialism did not accurately depict modern society. They actively sought new categories to account for the great diversity of life-styles and income sources but as of the late 1980s had not reached a consensus concerning modifications in traditional theories.
Most sociologists spoke of the existence of three major strata in society: white-collar workers engaged in mental labor; manual laborers; and peasants. The white-collar category comprised everyone not involved in physical labor--party and government leaders, intellectuals, professionals and teachers, collective farm managers, artists, business persons, traders, shop owners and specialists such as building contractors. This category constituted 30.3 percent of active earners in 1987, with 14.5 percent classified as professionals. The manual labor category encompassed 61.4 percent of the work force and included skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled blue-collar workers of all ranks and degrees of training and prosperity. The peasantry working on both cooperative and state farms made up 8.3 percent of earners. About 4.6 percent of the work force were also "smallscale producers" of various types.
A survey taken in 1981 revealed the surprisingly widespread nature of small-scale agricultural production among virtually all social categories and occupations; 62.7 percent of active earners lived in households that cultivated at least small gardens of fruit trees or vegetables. A smaller but still substantial number of active earners were involved in animal husbandry. Sociologists were uncertain about whether or not this phenomenon was a temporary phase in industrial development or a new category of agricultural worker.
Persons with some claim to elite status made up no more than 15 percent of the population in the early 1980s. The elite consisted of three identifiable groups in the 1980s: political, technocratic, and intellectual. The political elite consisted of top party and government leaders. Although some members of this group flaunted their status and privileges, most were not highly visible and did not advertise their special status. Members appeared to be relatively sensitive to their public image and did not indulge in conspicuous consumption. The technocrats included managers, directors, economists, and researchers who supported the regime. The benefits they derived from the system were more visible, in the form of bonuses and salaries and of the autombiles, villas, apartments, and other special advantages that these financial windfalls made possible. The intellectual elite, composed of academicians, scientists, musicians, artists, writers, journalists, and actors, included many persons who were comfortably placed, although others lived in relatively humble circumstances. They were leaders in setting both social and political trends. Members of these favored groups often possessed, in addition to relative wealth, the important commodity of influence or "connections." This form of influence gave them and their families access to scarce items and limited opportunities, such as quality higher education.
Additional occupations that were likely to be financially rewarding included medicine, engineering, and, in some cases, skilled technicial jobs, such as electricial work, house painting, plumbing, and building contracting. These technicians might have several income sources from their private work in addition to salaried work. Intellectuals who lacked high salaries but supplemented their income through various types of consulting work, such as editing, translating, and so forth, were also financially secure.
Prosperous individuals enjoyed a very comfortable standard of living. Families who could afford private holiday and weekend houses built them on the shores of Lake Balaton, along rivers, and in mountain areas. From 1981 through 1987, a total of 30,397 private "holiday houses" were built. As more people owned their own automobiles, weekend trips became increasingly popular. During the 1970s, more people, even those in relatively modest circumstances, began to travel abroad. In 1981 a record 5.5 million Hungarians traveled outside Hungary. Of these, about 477,000 traveled to capitalist countries, in Europe or overseas. As a result of financial constraints, the number of travelers dropped somewhat in the mid-1980s. Regulations concerning the exchange of foreign currency permitted travel to capitalist countries no more than once a year on organized tours or once every three years on an individual basis. If a traveler had access to additional sources of foreign currency, however, he or she could travel more frequently.
To achieve an acceptable living standard or to improve their modest circumstances, most Hungarians had to work hard; often they held more than one job. Continuing inflation in the 1980s created additional pressures on families with moderate income. Although the government introduced the five-day workweek throughout the economy between 1980 and 1985, more persons worked extended workdays to increase household income. It was estimated that three families in four had some source of additional income not resulting from work in state or collective sources. Many families were thus able to achieve a comfortable, if still modest, life-style.
A number of disadvantaged groups also tried to make ends meet. Western analysts estimated that between 25 and 40 percent of the population lived below the poverty level, which, in the mid-1980s, was defined as a monthly income below 5,200 forints. Average monthly wages (6,000 forints) were only 10 to 15 percent above this level. In 1988, according to data issued by the Central Statistical Office, between 1.5 million and 3 million people qualified as "socially poor" (out of population of 10.6 million). These figures included 40 to 50 percent of all retired persons on pensions, about half of families with two children, and from 70 to 90 percent of families with three or more children. Other poor groups were lowpaid employees of the state and industry, such as postal employees, various semiskilled and unskilled workers, and minor bureaucrats. Some of these people supplemented their income through second jobs. Single heads of households were often poor. In addition, persons working on less productive collective farms and those living on isolated homesteads (tanyas) far from rural centers and even villages, were likely to have scanty incomes.
Although Hungary's living standard was higher than that found in neighboring socialist states in the 1980s, the sharp disparities became the subject of investigative reports, letters to newspaper editors, and various radio and television talk shows. Economic problems were clearly causing concern and some demoralization among the people. The government adopted a variety of austerity measures in response to the country's economic stagnation and staggering foreign debt. These measures included increases in the prices of basic items, such as flour, bread, gasoline, and household energy, and various consumer items such as cigarettes. A new value-added tax on most goods and services and a stricter income tax law were also introduced. In 1988 official sources reported an inflation rate of 17 percent. Western analysts estimated that the inflation rate could be as high as 25 to 30 percent. By 1989 the average real wage had dropped to its 1973 level.
Since the mid-1970s, considerable tension has emerged between the rich and the poor, partially because of the long-professed egalitarian views of the regime. During the immediate postwar period, the leadership had advocated (although it had never fully practiced) a general egalitarianism that, combined with the prevailing scarcity, led people to elevate self-denial as a socialist virtue. When conditions subsequently improved, the leadership and the population both were confused about what form the proper socialist way of life should take. The younger generation in particular took pleasure in the increasing comforts of life, but some members of the older generation feared a resurgence of a "bourgeois" life-style and "consumerism." Although poverty remained widespread, socialism's sponsorship of rapid economic development had offered many persons a chance to change their way of life and socioeconomic position in a manner that was unimaginable before the war. As living standards improved, the conviction had grown among significant segments of the population that economic growth and rising standards were inevitable and that ongoing problems--poverty and unequal opportunity--were remnants of the old order, certain to be overcome. Then in the mid-1970s, economic growth had slowed. Although inequalities were much reduced from the prewar scale, they still existed. They were less pronounced in salary differences than they were in working conditions, working hours (including their flexibility), housing conditions, possession of durable consumer items, and, most of all, general life-style. Even more troubling was the appearance of new inequalities, with favored groups consolidating their advantageous positions. The regime had few concrete answers for these problems. Leaders could only point out that the country had no models to follow in developing a socialist system to meet its needs.
In the late 1980s, the worsening economic conditions were a disappointing contrast to the successes and significant improvements in living standards achieved in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1987 the official news agency estimated the number of unemployed persons to be 30,000 to 40,000. In 1988 the press began reporting frankly on the noticeable numbers of beggars and homeless persons on the streets of Budapest. The media also noted that squatters were becoming a problem, especially families coming from the countryside seeking employment and moving into vacant apartments.
In the 1980s, severe social and economic problems took their toll on the family. Harsh economic conditions meant that most women had to work and most men had to hold second and even third jobs. These factors, combined with a housing shortage, subjected the family to considerable stress. Yet the harsh economic conditions also forced many people to turn inward, and they found in their families a refuge from the difficult economic realities.
In the postwar period, the regime had designed its mass organizations to take over some of the traditional socialization functions of the family. Thus, the mass organizations served as "transmission belts," attempting to inculcate regime values, and relaying and interpreting the policies of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (HSWP) to rank-and-file members and to the general public. In the late 1980s, some Western observers considered the mass organizations sponsored by the regime to be in a moribund state, hopelessly outclassed by newer, more spontaneous collective efforts. In response, some mass organizations liberalized their programs and distanced themselves from the regime.
Early in its history, the communist party considered the churches as competitors for the allegiance of the people. Therefore, the regime actively persecuted the churches, especially the Roman Catholic Church. After the Revolution of 1956, the regime relaxed its pressure on the churches, viewing them more as partners than as adversaries. By the late 1980s, the government allowed the churches wide latitude and eliminated virtually all legal and institutional restrictions on church activities.
<>The Family
<>Mass Organizations
<>Trade Unions
<>Women
<>Youth
<>Religion
In traditional Hungary, the family served as the basic social unit. It had multiple functions, providing security and identity to individuals and reinforcing social values. In rural areas, it was also the basic economic unit--all members worked together for the material well-being of the whole family. Even before World War II, however, family cohesion began to decrease as members became increasingly mobile. But the process of change quickened after the communist takeover. Intensive industrialization and forced collectivization prompted many of the younger peasants to leave agriculture for industrial work or other jobs in the cities, some commuting long distances between home and work. Patterns of family life changed. A growing number of women worked outside the home, and children spent much of their time in school or in youth organization activities. Family members spent less time together. The emphasis in daily life shifted from the family to the outside world. Most members of the extended family came together only for important ceremonies, such as weddings or funerals, and other special occasions.
Changes in the traditional roles of family members were dramatic. The dominance of the male head of the family diminished. The remaining family members had greater independence. Most notably, the role of women changed. By 1987 about 75 percent of working-age women were gainfully employed. Even peasant women became wage earners on the collective farms. This fact altered women's status in the family and the community. However, most observers agreed that in the 1980s males were still viewed as the head of most households, if only because of their generally higher incomes.
As women increasingly worked outside the home, their husbands and children assumed some domestic functions, helping with household chores more than they had before. Outside institutions such as schools and nurseries also took over tasks formerly carried out by women within the home. Nevertheless, time budget studies indicated that women were still responsible for most of the child rearing and housework despite their employment outside the home. Women usually worked longer hours than men. Working women spent an average of more than four hours each day on household chores, including child care, while men averaged ninety-seven minutes in such activities. However, the time spent by women in outside employment was not correspondingly shorter than that of men, averaging only 1.5 hours less than men. Women devoted less time than men to leisure activities, such as watching television, socializing, and engaging in sports. (According to the same studies, women did read approximately as many books as men but spent much less time on newspapers and periodicals.)
The state viewed marriage as a secular matter, governed by civil law. A civil marriage was mandatory, but couples were allowed to supplement the procedure with a religious ceremony. The greatest number of both men and women married between the ages of twenty and twenty-four (44.6 percent of all men and 41.3 percent of all women for those marrying in 1987). The law assigned equal rights and obligations to both partners in a marriage.
In the 1980s, social analysts considered the family to be an institution under considerable stress. Statistics supported this contention. From 1975 to 1986, the divorce rate increased from 2.5 to 2.8 per 1,000 population. In the 1980s, every third marriage ended in divorce. The rate of remarriage also dropped significantly. In 1987 about 66,000 marriages were performed, and about 95,600 marriages were terminated as a result of death or divorce. Almost 12 percent of all families were headed by a single parent.
A primary source of stress within families, according to many observers, was the scarcity of adequate housing, especially for young families. In many families, members faced the pressures and exhaustion of trying to hold down multiple jobs. Another source of tension within families was the prevalence of commuting. Although in 1960 one in every eight workers commuted, in the 1980s one in every four commuted. One million or more villagers commuted to the cities to work. This figure did not include long-distance commuters who lived in temporary quarters near their workplaces and returned home weekly or more infrequently. In 1980 such workers numbered about 270,000, bringing the total number of commuters to about 1.5 million.
Despite the statistics, most observers found that the cohesive force of the family remained relatively strong in the 1980s. For many people, the family continued to be a source of personal comfort and reassurance in the face of worsening economic conditions. The traditional sense of family loyalty and responsibility also seemed to survive. Family members continued to help each other in finding jobs or housing, in gaining admission to schools, and in providing for each other in times of need.
Until the late 1980s, the law contained no provision for voluntary, independent associations of people interested in influencing social or political policy. Potential independent groups had no concrete channels by which to gain regime approval. During four decades of communist rule, clear legal status belonged only to such mass organizations as the Communist Youth League, official trade unions, the National Council of Hungarian Women, and a variety of nonpolitical associations catering to narrow, special interests of the population. Until the late 1980s, authorities actively discouraged the formation of unofficial groups.
In the mid-1980s, official trade unions had almost 4.4 million members, or about 96 percent of all persons living on wages and salaries. The growth of trade unions was mainly a postWorld War II phenomenon; before the war, unions had a total membership of only about 100,000 (mostly crafts people). After the communist takeover, the unions were supervised by the National Council of Trade Unions (Szakszervezetek Orszagos Tanacsa--SZOT), elected by a national congress. SZOT had nineteen officially recognized unions, organized by industrial branch. Trade unions theoretically had great powers, but they traditionally had made little use of them. For example, SZOT had a legal right to veto decisions made by the government concerning the workers. In practice, the unions' historic inability to strike made this authority meaningless. The government specified overall policy concerning work requirements and wages. Most dayto -day decisions about hiring and firing were made by the management staffs of enterprises and collective farms. Unions did have great influence in the use of the social and cultural funds of enterprises and in industrial safety issues. Trade unions also controlled the administration of health care and holiday resorts. However, in the 1980s subsidies from the central government for these purposes were diminishing, so that maintaining even the existing level of services and amenities was difficult.
In 1985, in a move to increase its appeal to the country's youth, SZOT set up its own organization to represent young people, separate from the Communist Youth League. This organization was the first, other than the Communist Youth League itself, to officially represent young people. According to the authorities, the Communist Youth League was to remain the only political mass organization for youth, while the trade union youth would focus on issues of the workplace, social and cultural programs, and other traditional concerns of trade unions. Trade union members under thirty years of age could be members of the unions' new youth sections.
In the late 1980s, Western analysts detected a significant easing of restrictions on trade union activity in general. The official unions became increasingly outspoken, criticizing such practices as the requirement for overtime work and other austerity measures. In public discussions, both critics and union representatives openly admitted that the unions as constituted inspired little confidence in workers. In 1988 the press began reporting some brief strikes among workers in officially recognized unions, revealing that the outcomes of the strikes had been favorable to the workers. At the same time, some professionals and blue-collar workers made efforts to form independent unions that were not subordinate to SZOT. In May 1988, the Democratic Union of Scientific Workers, the first independent trade union established in Eastern Europe since Poland's Solidarity, was founded. Social scientists at research institutes of the Academy of Sciences, the country's premier research organization, were the first members of the new union. The union's program included a call for the end of discrimination against professionals based on their political views. Additional researchers and teachers from other institutions soon joined, raising the number of members to more than 4,000 by December 1988. Several smaller unions also came into existence. Initially, the membership of such independent organizations appeared to be limited to white-collar workers. The success of these fledgling attempts was uncertain, but after initial hostility from authorities, the groups were permitted to function.
In the 1980s, the principal women's organization was the National Council of Hungarian Women. Its official role was to educate women socially and politically and to participate in devising new laws and regulations that affected women. The organization had a network of local and regional committees, whose members engaged in voluntary social work. In 1985 the council had about 32,000 designated female "stewards," and about 160,000 women were said to be active in the organization.
The Communist Youth League (Kommunista Ifjúsagi Szovetseg-- KISZ) catered to young people. KISZ was the HSWP's official youth organization. It claimed to represent all the country's youth and sought to educate young people politically and to supervise political as well as some social activities for them. KISZ was the most important source of new members for the party. Its organizational framework paralleled that of the HSWP and included a congress, central committee, secretariat, and regional and local committees. Membership was open to youth from the ages of fourteen to twenty-six years, but most of the full-time leaders of the organization were well over the age limit. In the 1980s, KISZ had about 800,000 members. Membership was common, if rather pro forma, among university students (96 percent of whom were members) but was lower among young people already working (31 percent).
In the late 1980s, KISZ undertook sweeping reforms of its own organizational structure. In April 1989 delegates to the organization's national congress voted to change the name of the organization to the Democratic Youth Federation. According to declarations adopted by the congress, the newly refashioned federation would be a voluntary league of independent youth organizations and would not accept direction from any single party, including the HSWP.
A separate organization within KISZ, the Association of Young Pioneers, was formed for youngsters in elementary school. Membership was open to children from six to fourteen years of age. The Young Pioneers served many of the same functions as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in the West. The organization also attempted to explain to children the basic tenets of the MarxistLeninist worldview. Joining the Young Pioneers was a matter of course for most youngsters in elementary school. Most meetings took place in classrooms of primary schools. Bands of Young Pioneers could be seen on many ceremonial occasions, dressed in the organization's characteristic white shirts and red ties. The summer camps sponsored by the organization were a highlight of the year for many children.
Particularly during the early years of communist rule, the churches had faced extensive harassment and persecution by the regime. Many clergy had been openly hostile to the new government at its inception. The new secular authorities, for their part, denounced such attitudes as traitorous, and they mistrusted the churches as a source of opposition.
The most protracted case of tension and open conflict involved the Roman Catholic Church. In 1945 the church lost its landed property in the first postwar land reform, which occurred before the communist takeover. Most Catholic religious orders (fifty-nine of a total of sixty-three groups) were dissolved in 1948, when religious schools were also taken over by the state. Most Catholic associations and clubs, which numbered about 4,000, were forced to disband. Imprisoned and prosecuted for political resistance to the communist regime were a number of clergy, most notably Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, primate of the Catholic Church in Hungary. In 1950 about 2,500 monks and nuns, about one-quarter of the total in Hungary, were deported. Authorities banned sixty-four of sixty-eight functioning religious newspapers and journals. Although in 1950 the Catholic Church accepted an agreement with the state that forced church officials to take a loyalty oath to the Constitution, relations between the church and the state remained strained throughout the decade.
During the 1960s, the two sides gradually reached an accommodation. In 1964 the state concluded a major agreement with the Vatican, the first of its kind involving a communist state. The document ratified certain episcopal appointments already made by the church, although it did not settle Mindszenty's long- standing case. As before, the agreement mandated that certain individuals in positions in the church were obliged to take an oath of allegiance to the Constitution and the laws of the country. But this oath was to be binding only to the extent that the country's laws were not in opposition to the tenets of the Catholic faith. The church conceded the state's right to approve selection of high church officials. Under the agreement, the Hungarian Roman Catholic Church could staff its Papal Institute in Rome with priests endorsed by the government, and each year every diocese in the country would send a priest to Rome to attend the institute. For its part, the government promised not to interfere with the institute's work.
Following the agreement, many vacant church posts were filled. Gradually, the organizational structure of the church was reestablished, and congregations became active again. The church began to take a role in the ceremonial life of the country. Relations between church and state warmed particularly after 1974, when the Vatican removed Mindszenty from his office (in 1971 Mindszenty had received permission to leave the country after spending many years in the American embassy in Budapest, where he had fled to escape detention by the authorities). The new primate, Cardinal Laszlo Lekai, who held office from 1976 to 1986, sponsored a policy of "small steps," through which he sought to reconcile differences between church and state and enhance relations between the two through "quiet, peaceful dialogue." He urged Catholics to be loyal citizens of the state and simultaneously to seek personal and communal salvation through the church.
Evidence suggests that a serious falling away from religion among Catholics (especially a drop in attendance at church services) occurred only during the 1960s and 1970s, ironically during the period when the government no longer energetically persecuted the church. Some observers have suggested that in the 1950s the church earned popularity as an anticommunist institution because of widespread dissatisfaction with material, political, and cultural trends within the country. As conditions improved, the church no longer served as a focal point for the disaffected. Some Catholics, both lay and clerical, felt that Lekai, in his eagerness to smooth relations between church and state, went too far in compromising the church's position.
The Catholic Church of the 1980s had difficulty providing adequate services to all communities. Its clergymen were aging and decreasing in number. Whereas in 1950 the church had had 3,583 priests and 11,538 monks and nuns, in 1986 it had only about 2,600 priests and a mere 250 monks and nuns. It was clear by this time, however, that the church was reaping tangible benefits from its relationship with the state. For example, in the 1980s the Catholic orders of the Benedictines, the Franciscans, the Piarists, and Our Lady's School Sisters were again functioning in limited numbers. A new order of nuns, the Sisters of Our Lady of Hungary, received permission to organize in 1986. In the 1980s, the church had six seminaries for training priests and a theological academy in Budapest.
After the communist takeover, the historic Protestant churches became even more thoroughly integrated into the new state system than did the Catholic Church. They were not a source of organized dissent. The Reformed (Calvinist), Unitarian, and the Lutheran churches all reached accommodation with the government in the late 1940s (as did the small Greek Orthodox and the Jewish communities). These agreements guaranteed the Protestants the right to worship and brought about some financial support (contingent after 1949 on the loyalty oath). Some Protestant leaders praised the agreements as heralding a new era in which all religions would be treated equally. However, a number of Reformed clergy and followers became active supporters of the Revolution of 1956. After the Revolution failed, many of these people joined "free churches" (including the Baptist, Methodist, and Seventh-Day Adventist churches), which functioned apart from the historic Protestant churches.
In 1986, according to Western estimates, about 67.5 percent of the population was Roman Catholic, 20 percent was Reformed (Calvinist), 5 percent was unaffiliated, and 5 percent was Lutheran (its members were in particular the German and Slovak minorities but also included many ethnic Magyars). Other Christian denominations included Uniates, Orthodox, and various small Protestant groups, such as Baptists, Methodists, Seventh- Day Adventists, and Mormons. Most of these smaller groups were affiliated with the national Council of Free Churches and were dubbed free churches as a group. The country also had 65,000 to 100,000 practicing Jews. The remainder of the population did not subscribe to any religious creed or organization. Nor was any single church or religion particularly associated with the national identity in the popular mind, as was the Catholic Church in Poland.
Western observers concluded that although the country possessed about 5 million practicing believers, religion did not provide a viable alternative value system that could compete with the predominant secularism and materialism promoted both by the government and by trends within an increasingly modern society. Thus, religion was unlikely to become a vehicle for dissent as in Poland or, in a more limited way, in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
A noteworthy phenomenon of the early 1980s was the appearance of thousands of intensely active prayer and meditation groups within Catholic and Protestant congregations. Some of these groups came into conflict with the church hierarchies over military service and other aspects of cooperation with the government.
The Constitution guarantees freedom of conscience and religion. Until 1989, however, these guarantees were severely circumscribed by the State Office for Church Affairs, which regulated the activities of the churches. On June 15, 1989, the government abolished this office. In its place, the government planned to establish a "National Church Council" that would act as a "consultative organization," not as an instrument for the control of the churches. In addition, the Ministry of Culture assumed responsibility for church affairs. Also in 1989, the government submitted for public debate new "Principles of a Law on Freedom of Conscience, the Right of Free Exercise of Religion, and Church Affairs." The document, prepared by representatives of the churches, banned discrimination against believers, acknowledged the churches as legal entities, and recognized their equality before the law. Yet in the late 1980s, the state's financial support of all major churches continued to give it considerable leverage in influencing church affairs.
Between 1945 and 1986, religious communities erected or repaired 306 Roman Catholic, 46 Calvinist (Reformed), 33 Lutheran, and 23 Uniate churches. Congregations of the free churches built 185 new structures, and the Jewish community built a new synagogue. The various denominations maintained their own modest publishing organs that produced newspapers, periodicals, and books. Occasionally, religious services were broadcast over radio. The various churches and denominations each supported (collectively, in the case of the free churches) at least one theological academy or college for the training of clergy. However, the number of students was small; 75 students graduated out of a total of 648 students enrolled in such institutions in 1987.
Before the communist assumption of power in 1947, religion was the primary influence on education. The Roman Catholic Church sponsored and controlled most schools, although some other religious denominations (Reformed, Lutheran, and Unitarian) as well as the government ran some schools. The social and material status of students strongly influenced the type and extent of schooling they received. Education above the elementary level was generally available only to the social elite of the country. In secondary and higher-level schools, a mere 5 percent of the students came from worker or peasant families. Only about 1 or 2 percent of all students entered higher education.
Before the communist educational reforms, secondary education was traditional. The curriculum stressed the humanities, often at the expense of the sciences. Technical education received relatively little attention, despite the existence of technical and vocational schools.
In 1946 the government established the principle of free education as a right of all citizens, even before the communist assumption of power. In 1948 the new communist government secularized almost all schools and placed them under state control, giving oversight to the Ministry of Education. The churches retained only a few institutions to train their clergy.
The Marxist-Leninist government made major changes in the education system. Its goal was to mold citizens to work for the benefit of society. The reforms stressed technical and vocational training. Political education also became a high priority. Young people were to receive a thoroughly Marxist-Leninist education both within and outside the school framework. Education also sought to promote a thorough understanding of the political system, an understanding fostered also by youth organizations functioning outside the formal educational process. Russian-language study became compulsory from the upper levels of the general school (also known as the elementary school) through the university. Many Soviet professors taught at Hungarian universities, many textbooks were adaptations of the work of Soviet authors, and Russian-language clubs were established.
Marxism-Leninism had become the backbone of the curriculum by the early 1950s. A brief period of liberalization followed the death of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1953. After the failure of the Revolution of 1956, authorities reverted to their former emphasis on Marxist-Leninist indoctrination. However, they did modify the earlier policy of Sovietization in favor of a more Hungarian orientation.
The regime's ideology also dictated the need to increase the total number of students enrolled in higher education, primarily through recruitment from the working class and the peasantry. Whereas in 1939 only 13,000 students were enrolled in higher education, by 1970 this number had grown to 86,000. To be sure, some of these students were participating in correspondence or evening courses rather than regular daytime classwork. Adults were encouraged to study through schools at the workplace and correspondence courses. Authorities also tried to expand the proportion of students from lower social strata by setting a worker and peasant quota of about 60 percent at all places available in higher education. Students seeking admission to these institutions were assessed according not only to their abilities but also to their social origins; the children of families belonging to the formerly privileged classes rarely were given the opportunity to study. When students from modest socioeconomic backgrounds lacked the requisite academic training, one-year remedial courses were available to assist them. In 1963 this class-oriented system of recruitment was abandoned. Nevertheless, political considerations continued to play a role in admissions procedures at secondary schools and universities.
In 1986 the country had 3,540 elementary schools, 587 secondary schools, 278 apprentice schools, and 54 institutions of higher education, of which 18 were universities with several faculties and programs extending five or more years. Of the latter, four were general universities, three were technical universities, six were agricultural universities, four were medical universities, and one was a university of economics. The country had five specialized university-level institutes for the arts and physical education.
Attendance at school was mandatory from age six to sixteen. All students attended general schools for at least eight years. Tuition was free for all students from age six up to the university level. Most students actually began their schooling at five years of age; in 1986 approximately 92 percent of all children of kindergarten age attended one of the country's 4,804 kindergartens. By 1980 every town and two-thirds of the villages had kindergartens. Parents paid a fee for preschool services that was based on income, but such institutions were heavily subsidized by the local councils or enterprises that sponsored them.
By 1980 only 29 percent of males aged fifteen years or older and 38 percent of females aged fifteen years and older had not completed eight years of general school, compared with 78 percent of such males and 80 percent of such females in 1949. About half of the students who completed the general schools subsequently completed their education in two years, through vocational and technical training. The remaining students continued their studies in a four-year gymnasium or trade school.
In 1985 about 98,500 undergraduate students attended the country's higher educational institutions. Almost 10 percent of the population aged eighteen to twenty-two was enrolled in regular daytime courses at institutions of higher education. In the 1980s, about 40 percent of regular students came from worker or peasant families. Most of these students either were exempt from tuition payments or, more often, received financial assistance. In the 1980s, applicants outnumbered places available in the colleges and universities. As a result, many persons enrolled in evening and correspondence courses, although these courses were not considered to be equal in quality to regular day instruction.
In the 1985-86 academic year, about 2,500 foreign students studied full time in Hungary. About half were European students; the remainder came from developing countries. In the same year, about 1,300 Hungarian students were studying in foreign institutions of higher education, most of them in neighboring countries.
In the 1980s, the average educational attainments of Hungarians ranked in the middle, in comparison with those of citizens of other European countries. The quality of Hungary's education system was substantially inferior to those of East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Sweden and was somewhat lower than those of Austria, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Poland, and West Germany. Many Hungarians voiced concerns about the quality of their schools. Critics noted, among other things, that although Switzerland spent 18.8 percent of its national budget on education, Brazil 18.4 percent, and Japan 19.2 percent, Hungary allotted only 6.6 percent of its state budget to education. In the 1980s, the country experienced shortages of both classrooms and teachers, so that primary-school classes sometimes contained up to forty children. In many areas, schools had alternate morning and afternoon school shifts in order to stretch facilities and staff. Moreover, not all teachers received proper training.
At the university level, in the late 1980s some students and faculty were calling for greater autonomy for institutions of higher education and were demanding freedom from ideological control by both the government and the party. They decried the prominence given to the study of Marxism-Leninism and the Russian language in university curricula. The public was also distressed over the fact that, despite the government's remedial measures during previous decades, in the 1980s children of the intelligentsia had a far greater chance of entering institutions of higher learning than did the children of agricultural workers and unskilled industrial workers.
After the communist government assumed power in Hungary, it devoted much attention to meeting the specific health care and social security needs of the population. In comparison with prewar standards, the average citizen received far better health care and social assistance as a result of the government's policy. Such improvements did not extend to housing; like other countries in Eastern Europe, Hungary has faced a severe housing shortage since the late 1940s. However, unlike most other countries in Eastern Europe, since the mid-1970s the government has encouraged citizens to build their own housing. This policy has eased the shortage somewhat, but as of 1989 the lack of adequate housing remained a serious problem.
HealthThe modern social welfare system was largely a product of the 1970s and 1980s, although setting of goals, initial planning, and more modest coverage for citizens began in previous decades. Amendments to the Constitution in 1972 guaranteed universal assistance for the ill, the aged, and the disabled. The Public Health Act of 1972 specifically guaranteed that beginning in 1975 all persons would have free medical care as a right of citizenship. The Social Insurance Act of 1975 provided that insurance conditions and benefits, which had been different for various occupational groups, become uniformly applied to all citizens. In 1982 even those persons involved in private economic activity became eligible for full social insurance coverage (including generous sickness and disability pay), instead of being limited to pension and accident coverage.
The social welfare system expanded steadily. According to official statistics, the percentage of the population's income represented by social benefits in cash (including social insurance payments) and kind (including free health care) was 17.4 percent in 1960, 22.8 percent in 1970, 27.3 percent in 1975, and 32 percent in 1980.
The state health care system was highly centralized. Increasingly specialized and sophisticated services were available at the level of the district (the country had 4,374 districts in 1984), municipality, county, region, and nation. Each district had a designated physician to whom its inhabitants first turned for care under the public health system. If an ailing person required a specialist, the district physician made the appropriate referral. In the 1980s, the availability of physicians, nurses, and hospital beds was high by international standards. In 1986 the country had 31,154 physicians, or about one physician per 299 inhabitants (up from one physician per 909 inhabitants in 1950, one per 637 inhabitants in 1960, one per 439 inhabitants in 1970, and one per 398 inhabitants in 1974). The country had 100 hospital beds per 10,000 inhabitants (up from 55.8 beds per 10,000 inhabitants in 1950, 71.1 in 1960, and 85.5 in 1974). The country had 3,801 dentists and dental surgeons, 43,579 nurses, 57,277 other health personnel, and 4,506 pharmacists.
Although by the 1980s about 99 percent of the population participated in the social insurance system and could receive free medical services and hospital care, much private practice was allowed. In 1984 more than 3,600 health service doctors engaged in private practice, treating private patients during their free time. Many of them had very lucrative private practices. Many persons in upper-income groups, who could afford the high price of private medical care, chose to use the services of a private physician rather than one assigned to them by the health service. Public opinion considered the care given by private physicians to be of higher quality than that provided by the health service.
In the 1980s, the public engaged in much frank and apparently uncensored discussion about serious shortcomings in health care. Complaints concerned the aging of hospital facilities, the disrepair of their equipment, the shortages of basic medications, and the inadequate training of low-paid medical personnel. Western analysts estimated that Hungary spent only 3.3 percent of its gross national product specifically on health service (the 6 percent figure listed in most statistical data actually included some social services). This percentage was the lowest of any East European country except Romania (in comparison, the United States spent 11 percent of GNP on health care). Critics judged the health system to be substandard, unreliable, and increasingly tainted by the practice of offering gratuities to medical personnel to ensure quality care. They warned that the achievements of past years were jeopardized by the current neglect.
Certain trends in the general health of the population indeed gave health authorities reason for concern in the 1980s. Life expectancy at birth was the lowest among thirty-three developed countries rated by the World Health Organization. In 1986 the infant mortality rate was 19 per 1,000 live births. This figure showed an improvement over the 1970 rate of 35.9 per 1,000. However, the infant mortality rate remained among the highest for industrialized countries with developed health systems. In 1985, according to Minister of Defense Ferenc Karpati, 10 to 11 percent of young males were unfit for military service, and another 4 to 5 percent could not undergo strenuous physical training. Among conscripts accepted for service, 3 to 4 percent were discharged before the end of their training for health reasons, primarily because of physical or nervous disorders.
Health authorities had other special concerns less directly related to the health care system. One such problem was the country's high suicide rate. In the mid-1980s, the suicide rate was 44 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest suicide rate in the world. (The country with the second highest suicide rate, Austria, reported 26.9 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 1984.) The very high suicide rate had a lengthy history, confirmed by statistics dating back more than a century. Since the late 1960s, however, the rate had risen noticeably. Hungarian experts cited as factors contributing to the troubling situation alcoholism, mental illness, the growing number of elderly people, the disorienting effect of urban life, stress, and the weakening of family and community bonds as a result of rapid modernization. The high suicide rate among people over age sixty was thought to result from the economic stagnation and inflation of the 1980s, which made it difficult for people to subsist on small pensions.
In the mid-1980s, the authorities were also discussing the growing incidence of substance abuse. The incidence of alcoholism had increased during the previous generation, and a high percentage of suicide victims were alcoholics. As of 1986, consumption of alcohol per person per year was 11.7 liters; consumption of hard liquor (4.8 liters per person) was the second highest in the world. Authorities had increased the price of hard liquor five times between 1973 and 1986, but despite these measures, excessive alcohol consumption remained a problem. Although less salient than alcoholism, drug addiction was also becoming a source of some concern and was discussed in the press. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), a serious health threat associated with drug use in many countries, was not a major health concern in Hungary in the late 1980s. According to government statistics released in early 1989, the first AIDS patient entered a Budapest hospital in 1985. During the following four years, the country had twelve AIDS-related deaths.
In the 1980s, another source of anxiety for both health authorities and the general public was the downward trend projected for the country's population. As early as 1973, concern about the slowdown in population growth had led to the introduction of a comprehensive population policy. Supplemental provisions had broadened the coverage in subsequent years. The policy mandated generous pregnancy and maternity allowances. Working mothers enjoyed a twenty-week maternity leave with full pay. After the twenty weeks had elapsed, the mother could receive an allowance to enable her to raise the child at home until it reached the age of three; the amount of the allowance varied according to the number of children and amounted to about 25 to 40 percent of national average earnings per month. In addition, working mothers had access to unpaid days off (prorated according to the number and ages of the children involved) or other benefits to enable them to take care of a sick child. Additional ongoing family allowances were available for families with two or more children. In spite of this assistance, child rearing was a large expense to families. The various forms of assistance, while clearly beneficial to young families, actually amounted to only 15 to 20 percent of child-rearing costs.
WelfareIn the late 1980s, the country's pension system covered about 85 percent of the population falling within pensionable ages. Male workers could qualify for pensions at the age of sixty, female workers at the age of fifty-five. The number of pensioners had increased rapidly since the end of World War II as people lived longer and as pension coverage expanded to include additional segments of the population. In the early 1950s, the country had had only 12 to 13 pensioners for every 100 active workers. In the late 1980s, however, the country had 50 pensioners for every 100 active workers. This trend placed a heavy burden on the government, the main source of pension funds.
The amount of a person's pension depended upon earnings and number of years of employment. In 1989 the minimum monthly pension was 3,340 forints (about US$54). Yearly cost-of-living increases had failed to keep up with inflation. In 1979 the government introduced major pension increases for the lowest-paid pensioners in an effort to improve the situation. The most vulnerable pensioners tended to be women, whose pensions averaged 25 percent less than men's pensions. More women had small pensions than men because women generally had worked fewer years and earned lower salaries. About 20 percent of all pensioners, or about 400,000 persons, worked to bring in additional income, usually undertaking part-time or seasonal work. In the 1980s, pensioners constituted a significant segment of the country's poor. The unfortunate circumstances of many elderly citizens and the need to reform the pension system were the subjects of considerable press commentary.