The Assessment of Systemic Change

Abstract

The citizens have been more disappointed in systemic change than in a number of comparable countries in a similar situation. The assessment of systemic change is a more negative one, people have a larger sense of loss than elsewhere, and the distance between the expectations and the actual tendencies has grown unusually large. As far as it can be judged on the basis of data, this is not a special Hungarian pessimism: the positive elements, such as the strength of the structures safeguarding political freedom are appreciated by the citizens. At the same time the undermining of a part of safety, highly appreciated by everybody, affects many people very badly. The consequence is lack of confidence in future, besides turning away from politics. All this has not only been brought about by the ’hand of fate’, but by the deficit of democracy as well, which had and has made politics unable to respond to the new situations, difficulties and to the resulting new needs.