ABSTRACT
During the last few years, changes of great magnitude and depth took place in Hungary. They present a completely new situation for researchers. The fact that the old system, which seemed to work for almost half a century, crumbled so quickly surprised not only the public, but political scientists and sociologists as well. The system of power and decision making rapidly collapsed as did a political culture that, for decades, enjoyed all the privileges of authority. The most important task of all previous institutions involved in political socialization was to pass on cultural views based on a common systemic ideology. By the spring of 1990, the Hungarian parties became vehicles to express all the aggression and the angry demand for justice that had not been voiced publicly for decades. The processes of Hungarian political socialization in the near future will most probably illustrate the diversity of simultaneously competing and different political cultures and the heterogeneity of value systems.
