Series

Today, when we are once again reading that learning is essentially a form of suffering, and that knowledge is acquired through extensive practice, it is worth heeding the warnings of futurists from the 1960s and 70s, as the future they predicted has now become our present. According to them, the rise or fall of cultures is linked to the kind of vision we have for the future. Fred L. Polak, a Dutch futurist, argued that a society’s positive self-image is inextricably tied to the flourishing of its culture, but once decline sets in, the society loses its vitality, and culture disappears (Polak 1961). Later, Alvin Toffler pointed out that rapid technological changes often elicit a reaction of “future shock” from society, which can lead to a retreat into the past or the proliferation of conspiracy theories (Toffler 1971). Not only futurists but also philosophers argue that creativity could be the answer to the problems of today, such as the climate crisis, mass migration, and rapid technological change. “We need a vision of the future where we can connect the disjointed parts, think multidimensionally and systemically, avoiding oversimplified and polarizing pseudo-solutions,” quoted Edgar Morin, a French philosopher (Montuori 2011: 225). To achieve this, we need to be able to live with uncertainty, contingency, and human vulnerability.

This approach, often considered a catastrophe from the perspective of those seeking eternal truth through authoritarian and closed thinking, can also be seen as a commitment to human creativity and responsibility. The collective creativity of complex dialogue can help us envision and realize possible and favorable future alternatives, where differences represent a creative force rather than the fragmentation of the future (Montuori 2011). According to Sardar (2010), we must rethink the concepts of progress and modernization, and only with the help of imagination can we “think our way” out of this state and create a new kind of normality. The challenges of the 21st century can primarily be tackled through imagination and creativity (Cilliers 2005). How well we can emerge from the chaotic present depends largely on the quality of our imagination (Montuori 2011). Economic actors are increasingly recognizing the importance of creativity. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), analytical and creative thinking will remain among the most important skills for workers in the future. Furthermore, in the coming years, demand for skills in creative thinking and analytical ability, along with technological knowledge, as well as curiosity and lifelong learning, will grow the most, according to employers (WEF 2023). It is no coincidence, therefore, that one of the key areas of the latest 2022 OECD PISA study was creativity, or more precisely, critical and creative thinking.

It is a well-known assertion in professional circles that the health status of a country at the population level is not determined by the number of cardiac surgery centers or how many heart-lung transplants are performed in the country, but rather by whether the population has access to well-developed, readily available primary care services to ensure fewer people require costly high-tech treatments. Regular primary care screenings and management can reduce the number of people with hypertension, help diabetics live with normal values, and, consequently, reduce the incidence of heart attacks, strokes, and amputations. Hungarian healthcare, from the end of World War II until the political transition, was characterized by a well-functioning, universally accessible primary care system that was in line with the technological standards of its time. During the socialist era, particularly in rural areas, limited transportation and communication options made the role of local general practitioners more valuable. It was during this period that the "one village - one doctor - one nurse" healthcare model was established. After the political transition, the previous primary healthcare system was replaced by the current general practitioner (GP) system, which, after a successful and promising start, has faced increasing challenges over the past decade. Today, the sustainability of the primary care system has become a topic of public discussion. The number of vacant practices is growing at an accelerating pace, and the age structure of general practitioners guarantees the further deterioration of the situation. In this paper, I will investigate the extent of the problem and whether there is a chance for recovery within the unchanged healthcare system under a linear development scenario.

When examining Hungarian society's relationship with sports, we may have mixed feelings. On one hand, we consider ourselves a sports nation, while on the other hand, more than two-thirds of the adult population do not engage in sports as part of their daily routine. The realization of the dual identity of a sports nation and a nation of athletes was already set as a goal in the 2007 Sport XXI National Sports Strategy. However, according to research from the past two decades, we have not come closer to achieving the latter—namely, increasing the physical activity of the population. Sports policy continues to focus on maintaining international success in elite sports, particularly Olympic achievements, and—despite occasional emerging crises—this intention has been successful at the level of results. Nonetheless, this prioritization has led to the significant allocation of sports funding over the past two decades toward elite sports and its related youth development, while funding for recreational sports has consistently remained below 5%. Despite the declared concept of a sports nation, it can be stated that in the past decade, there have been very few significant initiatives supporting adult recreational sports, and while spending on sports equipment and services is increasing, this can be explained by higher spending among active athletes, rather than a larger proportion of the population engaging in physical activity (Szabó et al., 2021). It has become clear that sporting success does not directly result in an improvement in the frequency of sports participation among the population, despite the well-known health and psychosocial benefits of physical activity. Since the 1990s, promoting health-enhancing physical activity (HEPA) has gradually entered the focus of the healthcare sector in international policy, and in 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidelines recommending 150 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity per week for adults (WHO, 2020). In the updated version from 2020, special emphasis is placed on the fact that any amount of physical activity is better than complete inactivity, meaning that partial fulfillment of these recommendations has a significant impact on health maintenance. This could potentially lead to a reduction in healthcare spending through the reduction of lifestyle-related, non-communicable diseases, if more people achieved the recommended levels of physical activity (Ács et al., 2020). While this is an integral part of domestic policy strategies, the trends of the past decades show no progress in this regard.

Since 1979, the European Union (formerly the European Economic Community) has held direct elections to its 720-member representative body every five years. In addition to its role in EU-level lawmaking, the European Parliament (EP) also has some authority and political influence in the election, accountability, and approval of the European Commission, the executive body of the EU (Hix et al. 2007; Hix–Høyland 2022). Compared to the centuries-old powers of the national parliaments of member states, the European Parliament’s jurisdiction is modest but expanding rapidly. This growth is not necessarily due to formal reforms but rather because the public—especially in Western European member states—expects a more prominent role from the body. In response, the European political groups have increasingly adopted more ambitious goals and a clearer sense of their representative roles (Hix et al. 2007).

The rules adopted by the European Parliament take precedence and define a significant portion of the national laws of the 27 member states. This highlights the importance of European elections, as the EU represents about 6% of the global population and roughly one-sixth of the world’s GDP. In this sense, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) holds greater political power than a representative in their own national parliament. However, despite this, the elections for the former generally attract less attention. This is because while the issues addressed by EU legislation are often significant, they are less politicized, as citizens primarily identify and engage with national political contexts. Additionally, the results of European elections are not greatly influenced by the voting outcomes of any individual member state. Consequently, the final outcome of the European elections—i.e., which transnational party group secures how many seats—is generally predictable with a high degree of accuracy. Even if unexpected events occur in a member state’s EP election, their impact is often diluted by opposing developments in other states.

In 2024, it was no secret that the representation of center-left and liberal parties would decrease, while EU-skeptical and far-right parties would increase their representation in Parliament. However, it also seemed clear that this would not lead to a change in the composition of the European Commission, as the shift would not be significant enough to prompt a radically different party arrangement. Instead, the maneuvering space for the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) would increase, as it could form a numerical majority with the party groups to its right in the 2024-2029 European Parliament cycle.

One of the most comprehensive studies allowing the examination of public opinions regarding the environment and environmental protection is the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), which provides insights into the temporal changes in opinions and differences between countries. Within the ISSP framework, the first survey on this topic was conducted in 1993. According to the data from the 1993 survey, Hungary had the lowest proportion of individuals concerned with environmental issues among the 21 countries included in the study (Franzen–Vogl 2013). Nearly three decades later, in 2020, Hungary once again participated in the ISSP's international comparative attitude research on environmental topics. While the proportion of environmentally conscious individuals has somewhat increased during this period, Hungary still ranks among the countries with the lowest values in international comparison (Franzen–Bahr 2024). In terms of environmentally conscious actions, a temporal comparison of opinions revealed that during this period, the proportion of Hungarians who consider individual actions and personal responsibility important has grown (Schneider–Medgyesi 2020). Accordingly, various environmentally conscious behaviors, such as selective waste collection or reducing car usage for environmental protection purposes, have become increasingly widespread. However, the political activity related to environmental protection among the Hungarian population has not changed over the nearly 30 years between the two surveys, and Hungarian respondents in the 2020 survey showed no greater willingness to make financial sacrifices for environmental protection than in 1993 (Schneider–Medgyesi 2020). This chapter examines, based on the 2024 survey data conducted by TÁRKI, how the frequency of individual and collective actions related to environmental protection and the willingness to make sacrifices for the environment have evolved in Hungary, and what factors explain these intentions and actions. In addition to the demographic characteristics and social status of the respondents, we also consider the role of attitudes in explaining environmentally conscious actions. Our main question is to what extent individual and collective actions for environmental protection, as well as the willingness to make sacrifices, can be explained by doubts regarding the importance and manageability of environmental issues.

Within the framework of the International Social Science Survey Program (ISSP), Hungary conducted the fourth survey on the national identity knowledge base. The data collection took place in 1995, 2003, 2013, and 2023. While the composition of the questionnaire has slightly changed over the different waves of questioning, many questions remained consistent and were asked to respondents included in the nationally representative sample across all four rounds. This study does not address the results from earlier international comparisons (Csepeli–Örkény 2021), especially since international data for 2023-2024 are not yet available. Instead, this article focuses solely on comparing the 2023 Hungarian survey data with responses to the same questions from the three preceding rounds. This allows for an analysis of the structural elements of Hungarian national identity and how they have evolved over nearly two decades.

Our analysis is based on six key areas of the national identity knowledge base. First, we explore the structure of the categorization that defines the nature of national belonging, which is built upon emotional and cognitive processes. Among these, we examine the patterns of national pride and shame, followed by the development of the ethnocentric components of national sentiment, whose variations continue to influence modern nationalist political and ideological views. The temporal evolution of the national identity knowledge base is concluded with an examination of the changes in attitudes towards foreigners. Subsequently, through cluster analysis, we attempt to uncover the mental variants of Hungarian national identity and analyze their content. Finally, we investigate the social and political embedding of the different viewpoints of Hungarian national identity that we have identified.