Abundance or Shortage in Public and Market-based Services – Territorial and Local Inequalities in Hungary

Abstract

Our basic research concentrated on how changing governmental policy could moderate or sharpen spatial inequalities. As a result of the global economic crisis, the former neoliberal approach to governance has been replaced by a new, neo-Weberian practice in several states. The conservative government in Hungary adopted a similar approach after 2010 as it reformed the administrative system and different sectors of public services. In parallel, the new government also tried to affect several actor groups within the market sphere through legislation, regulation, stimuli, and restraint. This study summarizes the spatial effects of the new policy. We assumed that the gradual implementation of new government policy reinforced emerging inequalities and strengthened the centre-periphery relation in space. As a result of our research, we can conclude that settlement structure appears to be the most influential dimension forming the new geometry of power (MASSEY D., 1984); however, demographic, social, economic, and location issues are also important to understanding spatial processes.