Online ISSN 2286-0266
Print ISSN 1223-0685
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János KORNAI
Harvard University
My article “Taking Stock”, published in Népszabadság on 6 January 2011, reflected on on the events of the Orbán government’s first eight months and the public debates over them. It tried to explain how a radical change had occurred in the political structure: Hungary was no democracy any more, but an autocracy. In close relation to this, the article viewed the damage done to legal security and human rights, and the detrimental features of the economic policy that was being pursued. Another twelve months have gone by, in which the critics of the Fidesz regime have produced numerous in-depth analyses and vehement political statements. Broad agreement on the situation has emerged amongst thinkers committed to democracy, human rights and the rule of law. This piece does not call for any changes of emphasis. I am still convinced that the main trouble lies in the replacement of democracy by autocracy. What I set out to do here is to augment the conclusions made already, by reviewing the events of the last twenty months from a different angle: that of the centralizing tendency.

ŒCONOMICA no. 1/2012
Keywords: democracy, autocracy, free market, central planning
JEL: H11, K10, N30
Centralizarea şi economia de piaţă capitalistă