ABSTRACT
In this chapter we report on the process and social implications of decollectivization of Hungarian agriculture. This is a curious, contradictory process in more ways than one.
While post-communist transformations in certain Eastern European nations and Russia have been accompanied by rhetoric that is frequently revolutionary, ironically, the actual restructuring that has been accomplished in these countries appears to be far less radical than that which has taken place in China or Vietnam, the two countries which claim to remain socialist and claim to be committed to gradualist change (see Chapters 6 and 7). As in Russia and Bulgaria (see Chapter 3 on post-communist Bulgaria), Hungary has tended to retain the type of business organization which characterized its agriculture before the fall of communism. After six to seven years, the predominant form of agrarian organization is still the fairly large firm, the ‘latifundium,’ which relies primarily on wage labor.
