Hungary & the Czech Republic – From Communism to European Union: A Decade of Change
Dr. Kema Irogbe
Director of International Programs
Claflin University
This report is submitted in partial requirement for the fulfillment of the ExxonMobil Fellowship for participating in the CIEE-organized International Faculty Development Seminar: “From Communism to European Union: A Decade of Change.” A group of 23 faculty members from U.S. colleges and universities attended the seminar hosted in Hungary and the Czech Republic, June 15 – 25, 2004.
The seminar started on the 16th of June in Budapest, Hungary, a landlocked country located in Central Europe with a population of roughly 10 million people, slightly smaller than the state of Indiana. Although, roughly 90 percent of the people are Hungarians, the country has some ethnic minorities such as German, Roma, Serb, Slovak, and Romanian; however, Hungarian is the common language. The life expectancy at birth is approximately 72 years and infant mortality rate is about 8 deaths per 1,000 live births. The literacy rate is nearly 99 percent. Following the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, Hungary held its first multiparty elections in 1990 and initiated a free market economy. It joined North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1999 and had been acceded to the European Union along with nine other states on May 1, 2004. The country has adopted the rule of law based on Western model and it has universal suffrage as well as the establishment of a voting age of 18 years. Hungary has made the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy with a per capita income of roughly $13,300. The private sector now accounts for over 80 percent of gross domestic product. The country’s external debt is about $31.5 billion and its unemployment rate fluctuates around 5.5 to 6 percent. Due to Hungary’s relative economic weakness, its currency called forint (HUF) is roughly HUF250.89 per U.S. dollar. Due to the essential infrastructure in the country such as communications, transportation and a pool of skillful laborers, foreign ownership of and investment in Hungarian firms are widespread, with cumulative foreign direct investment totaling more than $23 billion since 1989.
On Wednesday, June 16, Professor Peter Akos Bod of Budapest University of Economic Sciences and Public Administration provided a brief account of the Hungarian accession and convergence to the European Union. Professor Bod asserted that although Hungary had been acceded to the Union, it would be several years before the country can be fully integrated into the mainstream of European economic life because of the internal constraints like the huge foreign debt, inflation, unemployment etc. On June 18, Professor Kinga Gal, an Advisor to the President of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, lectured on “Minority Rights and Integration: Hungarian Minorities in Neighboring Countries.” In it, Professor Gal indicated that one of the major challenges of the European Union caused by past and continued migration is how to fully assimilate and preserve the rights of the minority ethnic groups in the member states. However, he expressed the view that minority rights are likely to be protected in the Union because virtually every majority ethnic group in one member state of the Union is a minority in another state e.g. Hungarians are majority in Hungary but minority groups in other member states. Professor Gal, therefore, believes that member states will protect minority rights on the basis of reciprocity. In his lecture “Integration and Globalization: The Culture Challenge for Small Nations,” Professor Tibor Frank of Lorand University contends that in the increasingly globalized world where we find exodus of emigration, the challenge for small countries is whether they can promote harmony among the diverse groups. He believes that international organization like the European Union can play a useful role in providing guidelines for its member states to ensure that every ethnic group is guaranteed basic human rights. After these two lectures on this day, we visited “House of Terror: Museum of Dictatorships” where archives that show the despicable horror caused by the German and the former Soviet Union attacks of Hungary during World War II are preserved – a vivid reminder to everyone that such horror is never again to be revisited!
Our seminar in Hungary concluded on Saturday, June 19, with a historic trip to Esztergom - the land of king and the heart of Hungary. Esztergom is the oldest town and the first Hungarian capital. Most Hungarians are Christians and Esztergom is the home of the Archbishop. Also, most things worth recalling about medieval Hungary are still hidden in this town, waiting to be discovered.
At the conclusion of our seminar in Hungary, the group left for the Czech Republic. We arrived in Prague, the capital, on Sunday, June 20. The Czech Republic is also a landlocked country located in Central Europe with a population roughly 10 million, slightly smaller than South Carolina. Although, more than 80 percent of the people are Czech, the country has some ethnic minorities such as Moravian, Slovak, Polish, German, Silesian, Roma, and Hungarian. The common language is Czech. The life expectancy at birth is approximately 75 years and infant mortality rate is about 5 deaths per 1,000 live births. Literacy rate is roughly 99.9 percent. After the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, Czechoslovakia regained its freedom through a peaceful “Velvet Revolution.” On January 1, 1993, the country underwent a “velvet divorce” into its two national components, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Now a member of NATO, the Czech Republic has moved toward integration in world markets, a development that poses both great opportunities and some risks. In December 2002, the Czech Republic was invited to join the EU and it did so in May 2004. The country has adopted the civil law system based on Austro-Hungarian codes, expunged Marxist-Leninist legal theory, and has modified its legal code to bring it in line with Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe; however, it has not accepted compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction. The country has universal suffrage and the right to vote is stipulated at the age of 18 years. The Czech Republic has also promptly made the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. The per capita income is roughly $15,300. The country’s external debt is about $23.8 and its currency, called Czech koruna (CZK), is approximately CZK32.74 per dollar. The country’s economy has attracted major foreign investors because of the abundant skilled laborers, natural resources and availability of basic infrastructure.
On Monday, June 21, Professor Vladimira Dvorakova (University of Economics) assessed the political transformation of the democracy in the Czech Republic. Professor Dvorakova credited the successful transition from Communism to democracy to the financial and technical assistance provided by the International Governmental Organizations, Western Europe and North America. She said that the technical assistance included organized workshops, seminars, and conferences designed to educate and train government officials and other individuals on how to handle election machinery. She also praised the descendants of the Czech Republic in the diaspora for their generous financial contributions to various political parties and candidates. In his illuminating presentation, Professor Jiri Schneider of Charles University, the most prestigious university in the country, underscored the importance of advocacy groups in a democracy. He said that lobbying “legitimate communication of interests and opinions to the specific place” is indispensable to democracy while corruption “the illegitimate way of communication” is a drawback. Ironically, lobbying invariably leads to corruption in a modern democracy. On Tuesday, June 22, Professor Evzen Kocenda assessed the first decade of free market in the Czech Republic. In his presentation, he contended that the rapid change to privatization has resulted to some major problems: (1) an increased demand in social benefits and (2) a weakened CZK currency due to profit repatriations by foreign investors, particularly in the banking industry where 75 percent of the banks are controlled by foreign investors.
On Wednesday, June 23, Dr. Mateju, an ex-Member of Parliament, now a Professor of Academy of Sciences, Anglo-American College, made a lucidly informative and enormously documented presentation on “Transformation of Education in the Czech Republic – Higher Education in the Czech Republic: Development and Challenges.” He marshaled overwhelming data to argue the case for complete privatization of institutions of higher learning. Assailing the public education under the expunged communist system, he concluded that privatization of education is a sine qua non to quality education. In her contribution to the seminar, Professor Renata Weinerova highlighted the plight of the “Contemporary Roma Issues with Regards to EU Entry of the Czech Republic.” The Roma or “Gypsies” are a minority ethnic group scattered all over Europe including the Czech Republic. It is generally believed that they migrated from India one thousand years ago. These “undesirable Gypsies” have lived a past that horrifies and a future not clearly seen, and yet they exist on the fringes of the European society. Professor Weinerova believes that EU can play a major role in addressing the protection of minority rights including the Roma.
There are several gains from the seminar. (1) I am scheduled to make a seminar presentation on my experience to a faculty and student body on Wednesday, September 8, 2004; (2) a student study abroad program is being explored by Claflin University Office of International Studies directed by Dr. Miriam Chitiga. She will get in touch with the Resident Director of CIEE, Ms. Lucie Zacharova, in Prague, the Czech Republic, to work out the logistics; and (3) I am presently working on an article “The European Union and the Undesirable Gypsies: Challenges and Prospects” – thanks to Professor Renata Weinerova of the Czech Republic who is collaborating with me!