ABSTRACT
The Soros Foundation is a philanthropic organization that played a definitive role in the formation of the eastern European artistic field in the 1980s and early 1990s. This chapter recounts the emergence of the foundation in Hungary, and discusses its ideological framework. It investigates the reasons behind the activities of the Foundation. The chapter argues that, although during the political regime change the Foundation was a catalyst for the integration of the artistic life of Hungary and other eastern European countries into the Western paradigm, it also promoted new kinds of political, economic, and cultural dependencies. The notion of hegemony helps us better understand the relationship between the Soros Foundation and the Hungarian state in the late Kadar era. According to Gramsci, hegemony is based on the consent of the dominated social groups—therefore, its essence lies not only in politics, but also in civil society and intellectuals who form the "collective will" of the people.
