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Design Institutions and the Transition to Democracy: a Comparative Case Study of and Hungary

Guy Julier with Steve Hoffman, 1997

This paper was given by Guy Julier at the 'Design, Government Initiatives and Industry' Conference at Brighton University in November 1995. Steve Hoffman provided invaluable research from which this paper was developed.

Studies of the historical development of (Ceaucescu's Christmas). Thirdly, in design design institutions which promote the cause terms, each country was dominated culturally of their trade inevitably have to consider the and institutionally by a major city-- impact of political change on them. However, and Budapest. Fourthly, each of these cities whilst the British Design Council has established design centres long before the maintained a pivotal role in the establishment transition and which survived, largely with the of role models for other countries' same personalities intact these transitions. promotional institutions it has not undergone Fifthly, and finally, both of these countries the same degree of radical shift of political conspire to re-draw the economic and cultural background as many other countries. In maps of Europe away from the dominance of particular, I refer to the political shifts which the North-Western Europe of Germany, took place parts of the 'Latin' world during the Benelux and the South-East of Britain to late 1970s. and earlier 1980s, and the Eastern instate the Western Mediterranean and the Bloc during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Vienna-Budapest axis as important clusters of economic and cultural activity. This may be In these countries we are not just looking at a read in terms of the historiography of design shift from a state dictatorship to liberal as well. democracy, but also from a planned and protected economy to a market-driven and Theoretical Framework more widely international economy. And within this, the role of the individual, the Fundamental differences between these group and their relationship to the state is countries begin to emerge as we get into redrawn. more detail but I should like to begin my exploration with an overarching theory culled The aim of this paper is to review and from the discipline of political science but compare the relationship that respective which extends to sociology, social philosophy design councils in Spain and Hungary had with and many other areas which consider the state before and during their transitions transition politics and society. to democracy. They make comparable case studies for five reasons. Firstly, Spain and Civil society has been the subject of increasing Hungary are both countries which underwent discussion amongst social and political a marked degree of economic, political and scientists since the early 80s and its interest social liberalisation starting at least 8 years has been given further impetus since the before their final fall of regimes. Secondly, break up of the Soviet bloc (see for instance their transitions were relatively gradual and Hann, 1990). Emerging from this has been a peaceful by comparison with such countries liberal conception of civil society as essential as Argentina (the Malvinas factor), the to the maintenance of democractic Phillipines (the Aquino factor), Poland governance. This interest has been more (Marshall Law and Solidarity) or Rumania explicitly re-examined in the last two decades. This has been sparked off not only the by the 2

Latin and East European, but also the the growth of political movements associated transitions which include Thatcherism in the with industrialisation and the establishment U.K. with its notions 'active citizenship'. In the of capitalism; secondly, in the mid-20c. large- party-state system of left- and right-wing scale formally organised movements are dictatorships, the boundaries between civil formed to exact greater economic influence; society and the state are not recognised or do thirdly, in the post-industrial late-20c. social not exist-- depending on your own personal movements emerge to represent specific political perspective. However, once the state concerns (Vass 1992: 19). ceases to extend into all aspects of civil life, society and the state begin to separate, but In Hungary, all of these three have happened also reproduce each other. This means that at the same time. This in turn, I would the individual becomes the point of reference suggest, allows for some interesting dynamics for the state rather than the other way round. between different levels of interest groups, Formerly the party-state extended its including design institutions, and the new influence to the individual via the democratic state. If they emerge at the same machinations of national-syndicates in the time, then political movements, economic workplace and the district party. Conversely, interest groups and social associations may as this system is dismantled the growth of overlap and/or exist in tension. More central independent civil interest groups as to this paper is the idea that since the interest interlocutor between the individual and the groups pre-date and mature more quickly state is witnessed. The civil interest group than the establishment of the democratic becomes an important point of reference and state, then they are seen as an important information for the state whilst at the same source of reference in terms ideas, time, they serve as funnel for the individual to perspectives and skills by the newly elected direct his/her interests at the state. This is a government. very broad theory from which we may begin our examination of design institutions within In his article, Vass clearly identifies Spain as a transitional politics; but none the less, I think precedent for such phenomena. Fellow it is a useful one. countryman István Szilágy puts this similarity as follows: Hungarian political scientist László Vass has put this in more empirical terms (Vass 1992: Despite the significant differences that exist 11). His study of special interest groups shows between Hungary and Spain, the neo- their rapid growth in numbers and corporatist approach to social agreements membership during his country's transition. In that prevailed in the Iberian peninsula can still 1988 the Hungarian socialist government be considered a fundamental pattern for the made its last major reform prior to its development of the governmental system in cessation in the following year. This entailed Hungary. The prime reason for this is that, the representation of autonomous interest over the past 15 years, Spain has become a bodies at the level of local government. successful laboratory for the various regional Significantly, then, independent social groups (autonomous communities) and functional preceded the formation of autonomous (economic-social agreements) mediating political parties. institutions. (quoted in Vass 1992: 2)

In 1992 there existed 19,950 non-profit To put this comparison into practice I would associations and 8,180 public foundations in now like to look in more detail firstly at the Hungary. The former figure compares with specific historical development of the 8,514 in 1989 and just 6,570 in 1982. Klaus Barcelona Centre de Disseny and its Offe suggests that historically, and classically, relationship to the state and independent the growth of interest groups may be seen to political and economic interest groups from have three phases: firstly, in the 19c.we find its inception in 1973 to roughly 1983. I shall 3 then look at the pre-history and history of its to a women's Catholic cultural organisation parallel bodies in Budapest, the Hungarian CICF. Council for Industrial Design, founded in 1975 and the Hungarian Design Centre, founded in However, with the slow liberalisation of the 1977. I consider the reasons for the creation Francoist regime through the 1960s, designers of not just one governmentally related design more daringly sought independence from bodies and subsequently review their destiny state structures. Thus, Elisava's offshoot in democratic Hungary. I then go on to look school, Eina was founded in 1965 in a manner slightly wider at other similar non- to deliberate distance itself from any state governmentally related bodies. The more regulation: it was financed entirely from complex picture reveals certain interesting contributions from its founders and its own similarities with Spain, and indeed other fee system. Similarly, ADIFAD's hosting of the countries, but also stunning dissimilarities. 1972 ICSID conference was deliberately sited 'offshore' on the island of Ibiza: it was felt by The Barcelona Centre of Design its organisers that there were distinct advantages in staging it away from the core of Central to the Francoist political strategy of the peninsular state and in the more relaxed control and coercion was the notion of island atmosphere. National Syndicates to replace independent trade unions. This was into the Falangist The institutionalisation of design within the consitution in 1934 with the following words: framework of the Spanish state, as it then existed, was as undesireable as it was We conceive the economic organisation of impossible. If initiatives for design promotion Spain in terms of a gigantic union of were met with indifference and producers. We shall organise Spanish society obstructiveness on the part of the regime on a corporative basis by means of a system then independence also ensured a 'no strings of vertical syndicates, arranged in accordance attached' space to flex the internationalist, with the various branches of production in the regionalist as well as technological and service of the national economic integrity. cultural avant-gardist aspirations of the (quoted in Anderson 1970: 30) middle-class, Catalan intelligentsia.

In this respect, Barcelona's designers In this climate, therefore, the Barcelona consistently and deliberately avoided such Centre of Design was founded in 1973. Unlike incorporation. All independent interest groups ADI-FAD which represented the more and associations had to register themselves culturalist motivations for designers, BCD's with the Civil Governor. When a group of prime task was the promotion of design in designers in Barcelona attempted to form a industry. Its principal founders were the professional society for themselves in 1957 industrial designers Joan Antoni Blanc, Rafael their application for registration and thus Carreras, Ferran Freixa, Joan Prats, Josep official state recognition was met with the Bertran and the industrialist Jordi Casablancas rebuffal that, ‘to found an association for (Carol 1988: 18). professional designers wasthe proper role of the [National] Syndical Organization’ (quoted Casablancas estimated that such a centre in Mir Pozo 1975: 195). There were ways and would require 10m. pesetas in order to get means, however. This group acheived legal itself off the ground. He approached the status by attaching itself to a decorative arts Banca Catalana, which was then Spain's only group to form ADI-FAD (Associacion de bank to be totally independent of any of the Diseñadores Industriales del Fomenteo de regime's economic networks. Here he found Artes Decorativas) in 1959. Likewise, in 1961 an important ally in Jordi Pujol its Vice- an independent design school, called Elisava, President. Pujol found the cash to finance a was founded in Barcelona by attaching itself study visit to London and Copenhagen to 4 study their respective design centres. strong social base, the BCD networked across Furthermore, Pujol's support of the initiative a wide constituency of organisations. In this facilitated a network of interested parties in early stage, there was an involvement of the project. state-related interests but this is relatively insignificant compared with the energetic On 27 July 1973 the Centro de Diseño networking with other interest groups. Industrial de Barcelona, S.A. with the anagram of CDB (soon changed to BCD when a Undoubtedly the rapid development of the logotype was considered) was established as a BCD was facilitated by strong financial limited company. Its underwriter was the backing. In 1977, however, the all the Cámara de Comercio, Industria y Navegación supporting banks were forced to reel in their de Barcelona. Its shareholders reads like a support. The initial golden years of the BCD 'who's who' of Catalan banking with eleven had taken place against a backdrop of main banks listed. Its initial corporate capital deepening economic recession, precipitated was .5m. pesetas, half of which came from the by the oil crisis of 1973 but worsened by Chamber of Commerce, followed by an Spain's reliance on tourism and its émigré investment of 1.8m. pesetas from each of its worker population. The withdrawal of two- supporting banks. Thus began the 'golden age' thirds of its financial support meant the of the BCD. On 17 May 1974 its famous deflation of its exhibition centre and a loss of inflatable was opened on the Diagonal. By 80% of its personnel to a core of five (Felip mid-1976 this exhibition hall had hosted nine 1995). exhibitions featuring products from 270 companies and visited by around 15,000 The activities of BCD were understandably people. It had also published 21 documents limited in the ensuing four years. In 1978 Pere with a total print-run of 209,640 (BCD 1978) Aquirre, the then director of the BCD, approached Pedro Luengo the Minister of Such success did not go ignored by Industry and head of the Centro de Desarollo governmental parties. Indeed the Civil Tecnológico Industrial in Madrid which Governor of Barcelona, Tomás Pelayo Ros promised ad hoc financial help. However, this officially opened the Centre. On 18 February promise was not sustained when his 1976, the then Minister of Industry, Carlos government was ousted in the 1979 elections Pérez de Bricio oversaw the establishment of (Aguirre 1995). Such political instability in BCD as the 'Fundación BCD para la Promoción Madrid and the fact that the regional de Diseño Industrial'. In the same year the government had yet to be established meant BCD extended its member-founders to the that in the shorter-term, major financial Instituto Nacional de Industria and the backing from either public or private bodies Diputación de Barcelona. But it also extended was unlikely. Clearly it would have to survive membership to the savings banks Caixa de by its own wit, culling what financial backing it Pensions and Caixa de la Sagrada Família as could mostly from its consultancy and well as the Consejo de Empresarios de management services. The BCD offered Barcelona. By June 1976, it had reached an 'design auditing' services to some 80 investment capital of 33.7m pesetas. manufacturing companies of varying type and Furthermore, its 40 council members included size during this period. More importantly for representatives of the Asociación de Prensa, its longer term survival were its collaborations Amigos de la Ciudad, the Federación de with public bodies. Asociaciones de Vecinos and Amigos de la UNESCO (Carol 1988: 23) We generally associate the visual and material renovation of public life in Spain with, for The BCD's pedigree lay in a deliberate instance, the heroic years of Oriol Bohigas distancing from governmental participation. directorship of urban planning for the socialist In order to promote itself and establish a Barcelona City Council, 1980-4 or more 5 recently with the 1992 Barcelona Olympic design and execution of a series of exhibitions Games and Seville World Expo preparations. for the Generalitat. However, such impulses were prefigured on a smaller scale, in particular in the area of local The first of these an exhibition entitled, transport design. In nearly all of these, the 'Catalogne aujourd'hui' which took place in BCD was to act as the project manager. It was the UNESCO centre in Paris in March 1981. an obvious solution since on the one hand This exhibition was staged in order to there was a client such as Transportes promote both culturally and Municipales de Barcelona, the transport wing economically in its new context of Europe. of the City Council, which had no experience More politically precarious an act was its of commissioning design and on the other, a collaboration in two exhibitions staged in pool of designers weathering a recession. The Barcelona, the first being 'Catalunya BCD could therefore act as commissioning ' of 1982, and the second being agent and project coordinator. 'Catalunya Viva' of 1984. These two exhibitions were clearly set up to celebrate The portfolio of such projects began in 1978 the advances of Pujol's centre-rightist with an design audit of the city bus and metro Catalan-nationalist government in establishing system. carried out by Jordi Mañà and Yves a new cultural and economic infrastructure Zimmermann. Four large projects followed in for the region. 'Catalunya Endavant', designed 1979, including the redesign of rural bus by Esteve Agullo and Mariano Pi, took place in stations by Pere Riera, Daniel Freixes and a marquee in Barcelona's Pla�a de Vicente Miranda and bus stops by Ramon Catalunya, attracting 400,000 visitors. Benedito and Josep Lluscà. In 1980, the now 'Catalunya Viva' was designed by Santi Gir’ celebrated redesign of the Metro signage was and Ferran Freixa and was housed in the carried out by Joan Antoni Blanc, Josep M. Generalitat's Palau Robert. It also toured to Trias and Miquel de Moragas. Lérida, Gerona and Tarragona to carry Pujol's message. The BCD had the know-how and the However, these high profile activities were contacts. Pujol wanted some design (Aguirre only able to maintain the BCD in its reduced 1995 and Felip 1995). circumstances. The Centre reached its lowest ebb on 28 December 1980 when it was unable In these two exhibitions the BCD's political to pay its personnel and the office electricity independence and autonomy came closest to was cut off. However, eight months earlier, being compromised. Here they would be seen Catalonia's first elected regional autonomous to be designing popular exhibitions which government came to office, under the carried, indirect, yet clearly propogandist presidency of... Jordi Pujol. intentions. Here also, the BCD emerges as an interlocutor between government and civil The then president of BCD, Pere Aguirre society in a most graphic form. solicited an immediate interview with Pujol. From this Pujol arranged for the personnel's There was, though, a major payoff. The BCD's salaries to be paid in the short-term. In the Memoria of 1983 reveals a major boost to its longer term, Pujol instigated a series of finances from three departments of the collaborations between his regional Generalitat, the Department of Industry and government, Generalitat and the BCD. In the Energy, the Department of Commerce and first instance these consisted of a Tourism and the Department of Public Works. committment to further design projects By the following year, a budget for the BCD connected to the urban and rural renovation had been fixed within the budget of of democractic, autonomous Catalonia. More Generalitat's Department of Industry. significantly for the future of the BCD, Between 1981 and 1984, Pere Aguirre and however, was the invitation to manage the associates at the BCD energetically pursued the support of individuals in the City Council, 6 the Regional Government and the Central The Hungarian Situation Administration. However, it was this simple act of collaboration that provided a Unlike the Barcelonese example, where the watershed for the support of Jordi Pujol's establishment of a design centre began as a Generalitat. Henceforth, the Generalitat clear cross-current to government policy, would be the mainstay of funding for the BCD. design promotion in Budapest was firmly intertwined with government policy. None the To take the argument to the conclusion that less, the outcome of this, following the the BCD became a stooge of regional or transition to democracy since 1989, has, I national governmental policy, however, would believe been more complex. At the same be an exaggeration. Certainly it provided a time, however, it clearly vindicates Vass's useful conduit for broader economic policies. argument. Thus, for example, from 1986 the Generalitat's Centre de Investigaciò i In line with the policy of total incorporation of Desenvelopment de la Empresa provided 60% civil and economic interests into the part- of the funding for the BCD's design state system, a range of groupings identified consultancy service. Thus the BCD was able to with design promotion were founded take part in the broad drive towards following establishment of one-party socialist innovation in industry. However, the core idea government in 1947. First off in 1949 was the for this iniative came from the BCD. Indeed, Applied Artists' Company. Initially founded to throughout the 1980s, funding from the represent designer's interests, by the 1970s it Generalitat only came for specific activities took on two important roles. One was in the such as, equally, the BCD's CAD/CAM centre, establishment of a chain of 'craft boutiques' opened in 1985. Neither the central throughout Hungary to sell the products of government nor the regional government craftspersons as well as the produce of some sought to influence the overall strategy of the 30-50 small-scale craft-based manufacturing BCD. They would support it, however, when it concerns it had established. This was a was in their interests. reflection of the economic liberalisation brought about by the New Economic This case study seems to suggest the reverse Mechanism plan of 1968. The second role was of Vass's model of interest groups during the in the regulation of freelance designers. transition from the party-state to liberal Wherever a designer undertook consultancy democracy. Rather move from a position of work for a company, their design and fee being tied to governmental interests to proposals had to be presented to a committee independence and autonomy, the BCD has of the Applied Artists' Company for approval. developed the other way round. In its Unlike in Poland during Marshall Law, no clear beginnings it was self-consciously policy regarding fees had to be developed and independent of the late-Francoist regime. so approval was often on the whim of the During the transition it saw the new committee chairman. Two clear rules were democratic structures as it meal-ticket. adopted, however. One was that designers Clearly, then, these structures had to be were not allowed undertake consultancy courted. However, to partially vindicate Vass's where a close associate or relative was model, it was advantageous for both parties, already employed; the other was that the governmental and the interest group, that designers were not allowed to return to the the ties between the two were not too tight same client within two years of undertaking a and but at the same time, there was a consultancy project with them. This policy measure of mutual interdependence. was adopted to avoid the development of informal and possibly corrupt or nepotistic links between client and designer. Such a policy would appear obstructive and 7 damaging when judged in the context of free By the 1970s it had become clear for at least a market enterprise. decade that these aims were most probably too grandiose for an increasingly complex and To designers the origins of this system were developing economy. A detailed and and remain murky. The bodies which protracted debate took place in the early represented and controlled designers were 1970s to re-appraise the role of industrial embedded into the state-party system and design and the best structures by which it reproduced its policies. Horváth and could be represented and enhanced. The Szakolczai describe the party-state system as outcome was twofold. Firstly, the Council for follows: Industrial Design was founded to replace the Council for Industrial Arts. It was to work ...activities and the web created by them were independently from but within the auspices of spread to all possible aspects of human the Hungarian Office for Technical existence, entrapping their subjects as well as Advancement. As such its emphasis was to be the objects. The mechanisms that were set in the promotion of industrial design within a free by the system mobilised and created wide range of Ministries encompassing complicated networks of responsibility, defence, industry and trade, environment, obligation and fear. It was system that transportation and post, education and nobobdy living there could have completely labour. It was understood, however, that the escaped, where the slightest connection with wider promotional roles of a design institution the system led only to deeper and even more could not be accomodated under the complex involvements, where the more one umbrella of the Hungarian Office for Technical fought and acted, the more entangled one Advancement. Thus in 1977 the Design Center became.(Horváth and Szakolczai 1992: 199- was founded within the auspices of the 200) Chamber of Commerce. The Design Center's primary concern was to organise exhibitions Other Hungarian design institutions were, and provide information to the public. perhaps, more benign, if not ineffectual in their aims. Als in 1949 the Hungarian The key political difference here is that the Academy of Applied Arts was formed in order Design Center from the Council of Industrial to provide a skill base in design for the Design was that it never actually received planned economy. In 1954 the Hungarian funding directly from the government. Council for Industrial Arts was formed. According to its managing director, Mihaly Modelled on its British namesake, it was in Poharnok, during its first ten years of the words of Gyula Ernyey, ‘...as dedicated to existence, the Design Center's activities were its thankless task during the years of largely conceptual, writing reports, carrying centralized productions quotas as it was low- out research, establishing contacts: all of key and non-dogmatic in the formulation of which needed little funding save for that its goals.’ (Ernyey 1993: 104) It came under coming from the Chamber of Commerce the auspices of the Ministry of Light Industry, (Poharnok 1995). although its chairman was the Minister of Culture. Members were appointed by various Poharnok himself has something of an members and heads of professional 'outsiders' history. Within Hungarian design organisations. Its aim was to establish artistic history he is most noted for instigating a blue- standards for mass-produced goods, sky design project in 1972 which inherently investigate shoddy products, recommend pointed to the paucity of the Hungarian products for export and import, organize economy and design methodology therein. experimental design projects and Adopting a sytems approach to design, his competitions, set guidelines for improving team used sociological, health and economic product quality, establish contacts abroad and surveys to identify and/or design 400 kitchen supervise education. objects for pre-fab housing. Without an 8 adequate manufacturing and marketing Engineering. Rubik is unusual, firstly in the structure, little of the project could be made a financial success he gained during the reality, it being confined to exhibition at the communist regime. But in its turn, this success 1975 Budapest International Fair. Many allowed for the development of a design similar conceptual projects followed within institution, albeit on a modest scale, outside the Design Center however. It would seem governmental structures. that the Design Center's relative economic independence from state systems did allow More strident, and perhaps more financially another strata of design activity to develop, successful has been the V.A.M. Design Center. that is, towards the more conceptual or even It owes its name to the initials of its principal entrepreneurial approach to design. founder, Miklós Vincze. In essence Vincze is an interior designer who has been One Hungarian designer who was able to see enormously successful since Hungary's his product into fruition in the 1970s was, of transition to a market economy. This success course, Ernö Rubik, erstwhile inventor of the has come initally from carrying out design Rubik Cube. The Cube was first manufactured projects for the great wave of foreign in Hungary from 1977 by a small cooperative investors into Budapest. In 1992, for instance, called Politecnica; in 1979 manufacture was he undertook 150m. Florints worth of licenced to Ideal Toys in the USA. So far, over commissions including interior plans 100m. units of this product have been sold. Given the lack of incentive to actually carry such as for the Berlitz Language School and out semi-entrepreneurial design projects-- at the IWG Dutch Bank in Budapest (Peredi least within the 'official' economy --it seems 1994: 5). The bulk of the financial success, unusual that a designer should actually carry however, has been through specifying and through a design into production and importing contract furniture to fit these marketing. In this case, however, the offices out with. The V.A.M. Design Center incentive was that the object itself was also acts as a showroom for the exhibit of virtually a completely finished product in its ‘name’ designer furniture such as that by prototype form. Significantly, Rubik knew that Ettore Sottsass, Ron Arad and Borek Sipek. there was little leeway for a manufacturer to Further financial gain has been made in the tamper with or subvert the designer's area of domestic furnishings for either ex-pat specifications: it held its own against an excutives and their families or for the new, industry where alternations and compromises monied haute-bourgeoisie of neo-capitalist were the norm. What Rubik did not know at Hungary. the time was the enormous success the product would achieve (Rubik 1995). Design promotion directed at the consuming public, therefore, is seen as part of the lonter- Despite the strict financial controls put on term strategy which directy and indirectly will such entrepreneurial activities by the benefit the entrepreneurial interests of government-- particularly if this involved hard V.A.M. as well ast he design community it currency --Rubik's success with this product belongs to. Its activities include the allowed him to create his own Foundation to production of a bi-monthly half-hour support innovation and education in design programme on design, emitted onthe and design engineering. From 1983 the Rubik Hungarian TV cable network. It contributes a Innovation Foundation has supported a regular avant-garde design slot to the ‘homes scholarship system for Hungarian design and gardens lifestyle magazine Lakáskultura. It students to study abroad and also to help also organises design exhibitions in its own entrepreneurs with patents and licensing. In showrooms. It has plans to buy a 1990 the Foundation extended its activities to manufacturing company in order to bring the support design engineering innovation in furniture designs of Hungarians into conjunction with the Hungarian Academy of production and also for the foundation of a 9

Postgraduate design school. This school is be seen to dismantle itself and shed the intended to address what it sees as a lack of historical connotations of state bureacracy. conceptual rigour and business formation The Council for Industrial Design and perceived in recent pedagogical changes at Ergonomics no longer has any control of the the Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts (Slezia budget it receives from the Office for 1995). Technological Advancement. And this yearly budget is to drop by 10% from this coming to The V.A.M. Design Center has organistional settle at 60% of its total budget. Its director, connections with the Hungarian Office for Jozsef Hegedüs views this optimistically, Technological Advancement and its Council stating that by generating its own income-- for Industrial Design and Ergonomics as it now again through various consultancy activities -- is. However, the bulk of its funding comes will allow for greater certainty than total from its own entrepreneurial activities. As reliance on the state. At the same time he such it has self-consciously distanced itself sees a levelling out at 60% as important since from any controlling agent whether it be the much of its activities are connected closely Hungarian government or another design with the government. These would include institution such as the Hungarian Academy of the administration of the national Industrial Applied Arts. Also notable is the way by which Design Award Competition and the it has targetted consumption-- with an coordination of re-design tasks connected to emphasis on ‘high design’ --as the principal state-owned part of the infrastructure such as scenario for design promotion. In both these the railways (Hegedüs 1995). elements the V.A.M. Design Center may, to varying degrees, be comparable in character Conclusion to the activities of Domus in Milan, the Contran Foundation in London and the From the data given it is clear that in general activities of Juli Capella and Quim Larrea of the same tendencies of sponsored design Ardi and Ferran Amat of Vinçon in Barcelona. promotional institutions may be identified in both Spain and Hungary during their The examples of the Rubik Innovation respective transitions to democracy. These Foundation and the V.A.M. Design Center are: their formation prior to democratization; illustrate a level of indepdent entrepreneurial their continuance with largely the same aims philanthropy which carries over to the and personnel across the historical divide; transition and vindicates Vass’s argument their amiguous relationship to the state; they abou the creation of independent interest all take part in the proliferation of interest groups as a necessary and integral aspect of groups prior to and during transition. democratization. Interstingly, by comparison However, when viewed in more detail, several to the example of the Barcelona Centre of differences emerge which, I hope, add Design I have examined earlier, the other two subtletly to my argument. design promotion institutions which were linked directly and indirectly in the state Whilst in Hungary both a Design Center and a apparatus pre-1989 are undergoing a similar Council of Industrial Design with separate loosening of their roles. In 1991 the Design financing and organisational structures were Center was reformed into a limited company founded in the 1970s, they were non the less financing itself mostly through its consultancy embedded into the aims and machinations of services. It is thus, now, and independent the state. During the transition these ties have body. The Council for Industrial Design and been loosened. However in the meantime, Ergonomics is also undergoing limited independent largely self-financing design privatization. This I slargely part of the instutions have been formulated. These in socialist Hungarian government’s attempts to some respects have duplicated the activities reduce the national budget deficit. It is also of the governmental institutions. On the other part of a wider attempt by the government to hand, they have skillfully ‘filled the gaps’ 10 which the state ideology has not considered. References In the case of the Rubik Innovations Center this has been in fostering a distinctly Aguirre, Pere (1995) interview with author entrepreurial edge within design engineering Anderson, Charles W. (1970) The Political during the liberalisation of the 1980s. In the Economy of Modern Spain: Policy-Making in case of the V.A.M. Design Center, the an Authoritarian System New Jersey: education of design conuming public has been Princeton University Press the key platform for its activities. The proliferation of design centres is symptomatic BCD (1978) ‘Memoria’ Barcelona Centro de of a realisation of, if not frustration with the Diseño Archive state’s limitations before and during its BCD (1983) ‘Memoria’ Barcelona Centro de transitions. Clearly this proliferation reflects Diseño Archive the general steps towards political, economic and social pluralism. Carol, Marius (1988) 15 Años de BCD Barcelona: Barcelona Centro de Diseño In the case of Spain, its oldest and most Ernyey, Gyula (1993) Made in Hungary: The established design centre, the Barcelona Best of 150 Years in Industrial Design Centre of Design began life deliberately Budapest: Rubik Innovation Foundation distanced from the state. Conversely o the Hungarian examples, then, the BCD has Felip, Mai (1995) interview with the author progressively linked itself up with the state Hann, C.M. (1990) ‘Introduction’ in The following its transition to democracy. The Journal of Communist Studies 6, 2 trajectories of the countries’ design Hegedüs, Jozsef (1995) interview with the promotion in relation to the state have gone author in opposite directions. Of course there has been a similar proliferation of institutions Horváth, Ágnes and Szakolczai, Árpád (1992) around the BCD which carry out overlaping The Dissolution of Communist Power London: but also distinct functions. Again this reflects a Routledge shift towards political, economic and social Mir Pozo, Asunción (1975) ‘Evolución del pluralism. Diseño Industrial y Datos para su Estudion en Cataluña’ unpublished thesis, University of And finally, to leave aside the theoretical Barcelona framework I have borrowed from the political sciences in order to anlyse these dynamics, on Peredi, Ágnes (1994) ‘Jászapátitól a Váci last point needs to be made. Within this paper Utcáig’ in Design (Budapest) Vol.XVI, No.1 I have dwelled at length on the finance of Poharnok, Mihaly (1995) interview with the design institutions in both Hungary and Spain. author This has reminded us that design instutuions are also guided by pragmatic finacial choices. Rubik, Ernö (1995) interview with the author Design institutions are not just framed within Slezia, Jozsef (1995) interview with the author the meta-political discourses, mediating production and consumption, object and Vass, László (1992) ‘Europeanisation and subject. They are also about the careers and Interest Groups in the New Hungarian Political aspirations of individuals and social groups. As System’ in Budapest Papers on Democratic such they must be regarded no just as the Transition 31 reflectors or vehicles of ideology but also the producers of activity, framed by sometimes quite basic choices. © Guy Julier 1997