Two out of three Hungarians believe that the transition to democracy since 1989 has been a failure, according to the results of a survey of the four Visegrad countries by PASOS (Policy Association for an Open Society), presented on Tuesday.
PASOS, a network of 40 independent think-tanks in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, found that Hungarian opinion on the impact and success of democracy was in stark contrast to the more favourable views of the other Visegrad countries, especially the Czech Republic and Poland.
While two-thirds of Hungarians said “there were more disadvantages to life today than under the dictatorial regime before 1989″, 70 percent of Czechs, 60 percent of Poles, and 53 percent of Slovaks said there were “more advantages to life under democratic rule in 2009.”
Hungarians and Slovaks shared the view, however, that the democratisation process had been driven more by external than domestic forces. The majority of Czechs and Poles held the opposite view, the poll showed.
While in the Czech Republic and Poland a majority of people thought that fundamental economic and political changes were necessary, this view was shared by less than half of respondents in Slovakia and Hungary.
Agnes Batory, Research Fellow at the Center for Policy Studies at the Central European University, in Budapest said “the results from Hungary in part reflect a deep sense of disillusionment that is characteristic of part of the population, particularly the elderly and those living in the countryside, who were particularly strongly hit by the weakening of a state-sponsored social safety net in the wake of the democratic transition.”
Presenting the results, one of the authors, Gergo Medve-Balint said that Hungarian respondents showed confusion as regards the definition of “democracy”.
“In Hungary, democracy and the regime change are often interpreted in materialistic terms and this greatly narrows down the concept of democracy,” Medve-Balint said.
He added that regarding party preferences, the most disillusioned Hungarians were supporters of radical parties, followed by voters of the ruling Socialists and main opposition Fidesz.
