ABSTRACTS groups appeared in Hungary during the 125 worldwide economic crisis. The most Mária Hidvégi – Tamás Vonyó successful far-right political party was the Nationalism and Falling Behind: The Party of National Will, lead by Ferenc Failure of National Industrialisation Szálasi, who published an overview of his Keywords: Hungary, national industriali- ideas with the title Út és Cél (The Way and sation, stabilisation, failure the Goal), in which he elaborated his views Policy makers in Hungary faced a monu- on “Hungarism”. Szálasi considered Hunga- mental challenge after World War I in trying rism the specifically Hungarian form of to adapt the country’s economic structure to National Socialism. He also called his poli- new borders and to markedly different tics, directed at the “dejewification” of Hun- geopolitical conditions. Following a suc- gary, in contradistinction to the anti- cessful stabilisation in 1924, national Semites who proposed the limitation of income and industrial production picked Jewish rights, anti-Semitism, which would up, and surpassed pre-war levels signifi- have entailed the expulsion of Jews from cantly by the 1930s. However, productivity the country without their fortunes. The growth was negligible due to depressed Szálasi government, which came into office investment levels and sluggish technolo- on 16 October 1944, promised the solution gical progress. Industrialisation was pro- of the “Jewish question” and the establish- moted by the state, but output growth relied ment of a Hungarist state, which meant the primarily on employment expansion and totalitarian regime of a single-party state. outdated technology. One of the main fac- Accordingly, at the beginning of November, tors behind the unsatisfactory macroeco- Szálasi took up the title “Leader of the nomic performance was that Hungary fell Nation”, concentrating the functions of behind western nations in electrification head of the state and of the Arrow Cross and motorization, the locomotives of Party’s leader. technical change in the interwar era. Limi- ted access to capital and the lack of effective Levente Püski government coordination are mainly to The Political System of Hungary between blame, but the case of two major companies the Two World Wars present evidence that successful adaptation Keywords: administration, authoritarian models existed. regime, democracy, dictatorship, parliament, parliamentarism, political stability, regent Rudolf Paksa After the fall of the Hungarian Soviet The Extreme Right in the Horthy Regime Republic on August 1, 1919, the coalition Keywords: far-right politics, Gyõzõ Istóczy, government of Károly Huszár set out to National Socialism, Hungarism, Ferenc normalize the political situation after No- Szálasi, Arrow Cross Party vember 1919. By the middle of 1920, a dua- The roots of far-right politics in Hungary, listic political system had emerged which which is a widely varied phenomenon in showed the characteristics of a parliamen- itself, reach back to the 19th century. The tary democracy as well as of a dictator- birth of the “idea of independence”, natio- ship.The transitional character of the system nalism, imperial ambitions and Turanism disappeared with the premiership of István all date back to this century. The ideas were Bethlen, who introduced a new state and associated in the final third of the same governmental system in the first phase of century with anti-modernist concepts like his government between 1921 and 1926. anti-Semitism, directed against Jewish This essay surveys the phases of this emancipation, the agrarian movement, built process and makes an attempt to define up against capitalism, as well as the idea of precisely the characteristics of the political a Christian Renaissance. One of the pre- system introduced by Bethlen. According to cursors of fair-right politics was Gyõzõ the author, a parliamentarian political Istóczy, the father of modern Hungarian system emerged in Hungary by the mid- anti-Semitism, whose followers also took 1920s with some characteristics of an inspiration from Christian socialist thinkers authoritarian regime at the same time. This like Ottokár Prohászka and Béla Bangha. system had to face serious challenges The extreme right in its current form was during the 1930s, among which the born as a reaction against the revolutions emergence of the extreme right was the of 1918-1919. The first national socialist most important. Such reforms had been 2012/11 incorporated into the system during the era. The years of 1919–1921 were the period 1930s, as the result of which it can of state exception. The war times have not 2012/11 described as an authoritarian regime after ended legally in 1918, because the Hun- 1939. This system existed until March garian parliament ratified the peace treaty 1944, when Nazi Germany occupied the only in 1921. So the different governments country. had extra rights, and they could create basic executive decrees which restricted the Ignác Romsics freedom of the press. For example, a permit The Horthy Regime’s Character from the prime minister was needed to Keywords: Miklós Horthy, Horthy regime, establish a journal or a magazine, and the fascist, authoritative and traditionally libe- Minister of the Interior had rights to ban ral elements any newspaper or literary magazine etc. Although some contemporary analyses and Executive decrees of this kind were valid historical reflections published imme- during the complete Horthy era, but diately after 1945 could have provided a censorship worked just in 1919–1921 and good starting point for a more systematic during World War II On the other hand, the and archives-based research work concer- press could flourish between 1921 and ning the character of the Horthy regime, the 1938. Two anti-Jewish laws were esta- intellectual climate of the rigid Communist blished in 1938–1939, which restricted the dictatorship established after 1947-1948 work possibilities of so-called Jewish made this task totally impossible. Accor- journalists and editors, and more than 400 ding to the prevailing view on the time journals were banned in 1938–1939. period between 1920 and 1945, succinctly stated by Erzsébet Andics, one of the Béla Tomka leading figures of the communist historians, Hungarian Social Policy in the Interwar “there was an essentially fascist regime in Period Hungary too for 25 years”. The brochures Keywords: social policy, social security, and the school textbooks of the first 10-15 history, interwar Hungary years did in fact outline this view in detail The first social security schemes were and illustrated it with concrete material. introduced in Hungary relatively early, at Due to the more liberal atmosphere of the the end of the 19th and the beginning of the Kádár regime, real historical research began 20th century. These programmes, similarly after the 1956 revolution, and its first to the practice of most of the European results were published in the 1960s. countries, only covered industrial workers, According to the new approaches published while the public employees were granted in the late 60s and early 70s, the power pension and other welfare benefits by system of the Horthy regime contained not separate schemes. The inclusion of other only fascist but authoritative and tradi- social groups into the welfare programmes tionally liberal elements as well. By the late took place fairly slowly and only acce- ’80s it has been largely accepted that in lerated during the Second World War. Thus, respect of its political institutions and their the welfare system of interwar Hungary was functions the Horthy regime should be characterized by a serious contradiction. characterized as a limited parliamentary On the one hand, a major part of the system with distinctly authoritarian features. industrial employees was covered by Although the evaluations have recently health, occupational injury and old age diversified again, professional historians pension insurance, and the level of the continue to consider the Hun-garian regime benefits was also high in an international of the inter-war years as one of authorita- comparison. The public employees simi- rianism with predominant party relations. larly received relatively generous benefits. However, the social rights of the agri- Balázs Sipos cultural population constituting the majo- Press, Press Policy and Public Sphere in rity of the total population were very the Horthy Era modest in that period. The social welfare Keywords: Horthy era, press policy, public system noticeably began to open up to the sphere rural population as a result of the change This study focuses upon the press policy of in the political constellation from the mid- the Hungarian governments in the Horthy 1930s. 126 Dávid Turbucz roughly corresponds to Western European 127 Miklós Horthy’s Journey to Rome and standards. Another important aspect of Vienna (1936) their contribution was in the field of Keywords: Miklós Horthy, Regent of Hunga- cultural diplomacy. This was the period ry, the Horthy-cult, Horthy’s journey to Rome of the establishment of Hungarian cultural and Vienna, Treaty of Trianon institutions abroad (Vienna, Berlin, Rome, After the First World War, leader cults Paris) and the beginning of the state funding appeared in several European countries as a of Hungarian departments at foreign uni- response to the critical social and political versities. Kuno Klebelsberg and Bálint conditions. The Horthy-cult, a special type Hóman implemented a distinctly modern of this phenomenon, can be ranked among cultural politics at a European level within them. This paper attempts to analyze the the confines of an outdated society, and role of Horthy’s journey to Rome and therefore the time period between 1920 and Vienna (1936) in the cult-making process. 1944 was one of the golden ages of According to the main message of the Hungarian culture. selectively constructed image of the leader Miklós Horthy, the Regent of Hungary was Krisztián Ungváry the only one capable of achieving the The Role of Hungary in Wold War II national goals and of restoring national Keywords: Hungary, Wold War II Hungarian glory.