ABSTRACT
During the monarchy, the power of the Hungarian aristocracy found only little counterbalance in other endogenous societal interests – a fact subject to change only with the rise of industry, which produced a small bourgeoisie in Hungary. Similarly, the specialization of Hungarian science in a number of fields such as mathematics or biochemistry was only influenced to a limited extent by the decision of the Communist regime to invest into technical sciences such as mechanical engineering and ‘hard’ natural sciences such as physics and chemistry. A classical strength of the Hungarian science and technology (S&T) system, mathematics, is stronger than in many former Council for Mutual Economic Assistance countries, as are the social sciences. Since the policy paradigms, which by definition form the framework of decision-making for policies, have been found to change slowly and not in time with transitions, they can be seen as another explanation for the resistance to change in Hungarian S&T institutions.
