ABSTRACT
Two stories can be told about the development of the parliamentary representatives in Hungary after systemic change — and these stories seem to be fairly diverse at first glance. 1 The first story is about how Hungary was different from the other post-communist CEE countries by going through early consolidation and party and government stabilization (Ágh 1995; Lewis 2000; Nikolenyi 2004) — and increasing parliamentary elite homogeneity and professionalization as a result (Edinger 2010; Ilonszki and Edinger 2007; Olson and Ilonszki 2011). Behind this background increasing bipolarization and bloc politics were observed without having any effect on the composition of the parliamentarians in fundamental socio-demographic and political respects. Apparently, new representative elites were formed with features that made them distinct and different from the past, while diverse processes of political consolidation made them increasingly homogeneous and stable.
