Immobility created in times of crisis

Hungary changed its system a quarter of a century ago. That is usually enough time for a social system to prove itself: after 25 years, Germany had long since consolidated its democracy, and Finland and South Korea had achieved their goal of catching up economically. Our country, however, was further behind Austria in 2010 than it was in 1990. At some point in the middle of the 18th century, our lag behind our neighbor, which has always been the West to catch up with, was comparable to what it is today. 1 Despite all our significant political and economic achievements, we are being overtaken one by one by our former regional peers, Slovakia, Poland, and others. Only Romania and Bulgaria are now behind our country, which in 1989 was still considered a leading reformer in the European Union. 2 For almost forty years now, since 1973, Hungary has not experienced a decade of growth that has reached the broadest groups of people and maintained economic balance; rather, it has been characterized by recurring crises. Perhaps the best period was between the summer of 1997 and 2001. Otherwise, cycles of austerity following budgetary overspending and market-oriented reforms followed one another. Economic problems that repolarized society and created a series of hopelessly disadvantaged groups burdened the fledgling democracy with a flood of discontent from the outset. The increasingly extreme public opposition made the competition between the parliamentary coalition governments increasingly damaging.