Hungarian foreign policy: The experience of a new democracy

Brief Reviews IT-CE~ EUROPE by Vladimir Tismaneanu Economic Transformation in Eastern Europe and the Distribution of Income. By Anthony Atkinson and John Micklewright. Cambridge: Cambridge ~~versi~ Press, 1992. 448 pp. $64.95 ($18.95, paper). Communist governments in Eastern Europe claimed that although their economic and social policies were less efficient than the West’s, they distributed income more equally. On the contrary, write Atkinson and Micklewright, the pre-1990 East was not just poor, but a sharp gap existed between rich and poor. Poverty and wealth were sensitive subjects in Eastern Europe, and govemments published relatively little information on the subject. But, as the authors show, more data existed than usually thought. They also point out that with so many goods and services rationed out directly (from education to food), the ~~bution of cash income was less blent in Eastern Europe than in the West. In addition, subsidies made some goods available at below market prices, ldisproportionately benefitting those who were heavy consumers of the goods. Some East European countries (especially the former Soviet Union) ended up with a substantial gap between rich and poor while others (Czechoslovakia) had less. Unlike in the West, differences in wages were not offset by govemment social programs targeted at the poor-so much for the myth of socialist. cradle-to-grave welfare. The differences in income between regions were enormous: the percentage of the Soviet population living in poverty varied from 2 percent in the Baltic republics to between 30 and 50 percent in the four Central Asian republics. So, when reading stories about current poverty in the former Soviet Union, keep in mind that, in 1989, forty million Soviets lived in abject poverty. P.C. Htznga&m FoncigsxPoIicyz The Experience of a New Democracy. By Joseph C. Kun. Washington, D.C.: CSIS Washington Papers, Praeger, 1993. 168 pp. $15.95 (paper). Kun’s report on the goals, achievements, and problems of the postcommunist Hungarian foreign policy establishment points to its main goals achieved: the recovery of sovereignty through the negotiated wi~~wal of Soviet troops and the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact, and integration into Western Europe, which would provide the basis for Hungary’s economic, political, and military security. The first has been achieved, the second not. Kun argues that what initially appeared as a rather successful foreign policy has been dampened by a rapidly changing external environment, especially the faltering confidence within the European Community and the breakup of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Oddly, the same declension affecting Hungary’s foreign policy is also evident in Kun’s book. What begins as a useful historical account full of relevant

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Brief Reviews dates and facts quickly becomes ineffective. Kun introduces points, then moves on without elaborating or developing them-a problem seen especially in his account of Hungary’s relations with Romania, Slovakia, and Serbia over Hungarian minority issues and with Slovakia over the Gabcikovo Dam. Consequently, Hungarian ikbreign Policy is fated to gather dust as an obscure study once a more thoughtful follow-up appears. Michael Turner ~~l~diinE~padeEst.~~l~~~~~sistatul~onal comunist. By Mihai Botez. Bucharest: Editura Fundatiei Culturale Romane, 1993. 159 pp. 350 lei (paper). Botez, a renowned mathematician and futurologist, briefly flirted with the myth of Ceaugescu’s “nationalist and democratic” communism, then became one of Romania’s few inte~a~onally known dissidents. He ended up in exile in the United States and has recently been appointed Romania’s ambassador to the United Nations. Framed by his own experiences, Botez analyzes the role of intellectuals in post-~o~u~st Eastern Europe. He deals mainly with the moral role of the intellectual in a totalitarian state. Is partial collaboration with a communist regime, including party membership, justified if one hopes to change the system from within? Is the ability publicly to express some (although not all or even the most important) ideas worth the appearance of cooperation? Or should moral principle entail self-imposed silence? Implicitly, Botez tends to suggest that such choices are personal and circumstantial rather than a matter of moral and political principle. This, however, begs the question why Polish or Czech intellectuals, as a group, have chosen opposition, while Romanians, people like Botez and a few others excepted, have preferred silence. One can only regret that this important volume has not yet been published in English and is not easily available to readers outside of Romania. M.R. The Road fkom Paradise: Prospects for Democracy in Eastern Europe. By Stjepan G. Mestrovic with Miroslav Goreta and Slaven Letica. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1993. 200 pp. $28.00. Challenging Fukuyama’s end-of-history thesis, the authors argue history is repeating itself in Eastern Europe-a Balkan war, sluggish economies, and exacerbated ethnic rivalries to name a few examples-and that the West is once again unclear about its role in the region. In addressing such issues as the collapse of communism, democratization, and the future of the region, Mestrovic et al. draw heavily on the sociological theories of Robert Bellah, En-rile Durkheim, Pit&-in Sorokin, Arthur Schopenauer, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Thorstein Veblen to revive the concept that societies have their own characteristics, their own “habits of the heart,” that distinguish them and that they are not finished by the system that governs. In doing so, they conclude that “communism collapsed in the midst of a postmodem revolution which created widespread ambiguity, ambivalence, and difficulty in apprehending its meaning.”

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