Economic and political liberalization are widely associated with modernization in Hungary. This paper traces the process of liberalization in Hungary in four periods from the 19th century to EU accession. These periods are the Austro-Hungarian Empire, interwar period, communism, and finally democracy. Interestingly, the type of political regime did not influence the pathway of liberalization in Hungary. In order to address this empirical puzzle, the paper asks the following research question: Why did the regime type not significantly impart an impact on the political reform process in Hungary?
Through process-tracing techniques, the paper uncovers why there has been a convergence of reform approaches across these four periods despite the diverging political systems. It shows that this is due to the role of the political elite in framing the goals of liberalization in these periods. It delineates that elite discourse was crucial, especially in regard to the welfare system, entrepreneurship, and the importance of civic virtue in developmentalism. These three discourses mutually reinforced the reform towards greater liberalization.
In order to trace the underlying causal mechanisms governing political reform dynamics, the paper draws on a broad variety of primary sources. In doing this, the paper provides the following answers to the research question “Why did the regime type not significantly impact the political reform process in Hungary?”. First, and most importantly, the role of political elite groups has been constant despite the changing political systems; second, in this context, the same group of elites has been able to repeatedly frame what reform is about (i.e. liberalization).
