Agricultural restitution and co-operative transformation in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia

Europe - Asia Studies

Volumn 51, Issue 7, 1999, Pages 1199-1219

  Swain, Nigel ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL   (United Kingdom)

^b NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL REFORM; COOPERATIVE SECTOR; INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON; REFORM PROCESS;

CZECH REPUBLIC; HUNGARY; SLOVAKIA;

EID: 0033432717     PISSN: 09668136     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09668139998507     Document Type: Article

References (68)

1. Research from the following three projects has been used in this article: 'Transitions from Family Farming in Post-Socialist Central Europe' funded by the ESRC (Y309 25 3037); 'Rural Employment and Rural Regeneration in Central Europe', funded by the European Union (CIPA-CT92-3022); and 'Agricultural Protection and Agricultural Interests in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia', funded by the ESRC (R 000 22 1863). Their support is gratefully acknowledged.
2. A fuller account of these four paths to post-socialist agriculture is given in Nigel Swain, 'A Framework for Comparing Social Change in the Post-socialist Countryside', Eastern European Countryside, 4, 1998, pp. 5-18.
3. For details see Swain, 'A Framework ...'.
4. Discussed in more detail in Swain, 'A Framework ...'
5. For a fuller account, see Nigel Swain, Collective Farms as Sources of Stability and Decay in the Centrally Planned Economies of East-Central Europe, University of Liverpool, Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies, Working Papers, Rural Transition Series, No. 30, April 1994.
6. For a full account of this 'symbiotic' relationship, see Nigel Swain, Collective Farms Which Work? (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 51-79.
7. For a discussion of Hungary's New Economic Mechanism and its operation in practice see Nigel Swain, Hungary: the Rise and Fall of Feasible Socialism (London, 1992), pp. 85-151.
8. Ivan T. Berend & György Ránki, Economic Development in East-Central Europe in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (New York and London, 1974).
9. Nigel Swain, 'The Visegrad Countries', in Bernard J. Foley (ed.), European Economies since the Second World War (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1998), pp. 177-208.
10. Yohanan Stryjan, Czechoslovak Agricultural Co-operation: The Vagaries of Institutional Transformation, Berliner Heft zum internationalen Gensossenschaftswesen 5, Institut für Genossenschaftswesen an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 1994, pp. 14-15.
11. Nigel Swain, The Ethics of Agricultural Transition, University of Liverpool, Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies, Working Papers, Rural Transition Series, No. 31, June 1994.
12. Jiři Karlik, Questions of Ownership and Use of Land and Other Agricultural Means, Ekonomický Ústav Československé Akademie VĚD, Prague, 1991, pp. 9-10.
13. See Swain, 'A Framework ...' for more on Romanian and Bulgarian measures.
14. István Harcsa, 'Privatisation and Reprivatisation in Hungarian Agriculture', Acta Oeconomica, 43, 3-4, 1991, pp. 321-348.
15. For a fuller account see Nigel Swain, Agricultural Privatisation in Hungary, University of Liverpool, Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies, Working Papers, Rural Transition Series, No. 32, June 1994. For an analysis of the legislation see Nigel Swain. The Legislative Framework for Agricultural Transition in Hungary, University of Liverpool, Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies, Working Papers, Rural Transition Series, No. 25, Winter 1994.
16. For a fuller account see Nigel Swain, Agricultural Privatisation in Hungary, University of Liverpool, Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies, Working Papers, Rural Transition Series, No. 32, June 1994. For an analysis of the legislation see Nigel Swain. The Legislative Framework for Agricultural Transition in Hungary, University of Liverpool, Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies, Working Papers, Rural Transition Series, No. 25, Winter 1994.
17. Swain, The Legislative Framework ...
18. It was effectively smuggled back in immediately, however, by introducing a totally new form of special financial support, 'credit vouchers', which could be used, in conjunction with restitution vouchers, for bidding in the land auctions by those who undertook to farm the land they had acquired as an 'agricultural venture'. I am indebted to Katalin Kovács for pointing this out.
19. Swain, The Legislative Framework ...
20. Those who had not lost land were restricted to claiming in the settlement in which they lived or any villages farmed by a co-operative which had its headquarters in the settlement where they lived.
21. For a fuller account of Hungarian land auctions see Nigel Swain, 'Getting Land in Central Europe', in Ray Abrahams (ed.), After Socialism: Land Reform and Social Change in Eastern Europe (Providence and Oxford, 1996), pp. 204-213.
22. For a brief account of this period see Geoffrey Swain & Nigel Swain, Eastern Europe since 1945 (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1993), pp. 170-173.
23. See Swain, 'The Visegrad ...', p. 199.
24. The contents of the act are most fully described in Stryjan, Czechoslovak Agricultural Co-operation ..., pp. 17-18. See also OECD, Review of Agricultural Policies: Czech Republic (Paris, 1995), p. 82 and OECD, Review of Agricultural Policies: Slovak Republic (Paris, 1997), p. 66.
25. The contents of the act are most fully described in Stryjan, Czechoslovak Agricultural Co-operation ..., pp. 17-18. See also OECD, Review of Agricultural Policies: Czech Republic (Paris, 1995), p. 82 and OECD, Review of Agricultural Policies: Slovak Republic (Paris, 1997), p. 66.
26. The contents of the act are most fully described in Stryjan, Czechoslovak Agricultural Co-operation ..., pp. 17-18. See also OECD, Review of Agricultural Policies: Czech Republic (Paris, 1995), p. 82 and OECD, Review of Agricultural Policies: Slovak Republic (Paris, 1997), p. 66.
27. Stryjan, Czechoslovak Agricultural Co-operation ..., p. 17.
28. Stryjan talks of a 'massive disenfranchisement' of those who did not own land, Czechoslovak Agricultural Co-operation ..., p. 16.
29. See for example Helena Hudečková & Michal Lošt'ák, 'Privatisation in Czechoslovak Agriculture: Results of a 1990 Sociological Survey', Sociologia Ruralis, 32, 2-3, 1992, pp. 287-304.
30. For Czech examples of protracted legal disputes see Swain, 'Getting Land ...'. For Slovak examples see Iveta Námerová, 'Private Farmers in Slovakia: Genesis, Composition, Conflict', Eastern European Countryside, 5, 1999, pp. 59-74. Dr Námerová carried out the interviews with private farmers on which this article is based as part of the third research project mentioned in note 1.
31. For Czech examples of protracted legal disputes see Swain, 'Getting Land ...'. For Slovak examples see Iveta Námerová, 'Private Farmers in Slovakia: Genesis, Composition, Conflict', Eastern European Countryside, 5, 1999, pp. 59-74. Dr Námerová carried out the interviews with private farmers on which this article is based as part of the third research project mentioned in note 1.
32. For more details, see Swain, Agricultural Privatisation ...
33. 1992 II törvény a szövetkezetekröl szoló 1992 évi I törvény hatálybalépésröl és az átmeneti szabályokról.
34. Law VI of February 1992.
35. See 1992 évi II törvény ..., para 13, section 4.
36. Katalin Kovács, 'Strengths, Controversies and a Show-case of Failure in Hungarian Restructuring: The Case of the Hollóföldje Co-operative', Replika (Budapest), Special (English) Edition, 1998, p. 176.
37. Doreen Warriner, Economics of Peasant Farming (London, 1964).
38. See Swain, 'A Framework ...'
39. For a full account of the history of this Hungarian co-operative and its transformation into a private company see Nigel Swain, 'From Kolkhoz to Holding Company: a Hungarian Agricultural Producer Co-operative in Transition', Journal of Historical Sociology, 1999 (forthcoming).
40. For a discussion of events in Vinohrad see Iveta Námerová & Nigel Swain, 'Co-operative Transformation and Co-operative Survival in Slovakia', Replika (Budapest), Special (English) Edition, 1998, pp. 207-221.
41. P. Juhász & K. Mohácsi, 'Az élelmiszer-gazdaság átalakításának ellentmondásai', Közgazdasági Szemle, 1993, 7-8, pp. 614-624.
42. Katalin Kovács, 'The Transition in Hungarian Agriculture 1990-1993', in Abrahams (ed.), After Socialism ..., pp. 64-68.
43. It should be noted too that these figures understate the total amount of land that went to outsiders in the whole transformation and restitution process. These figures relate to proportionate share land and land distributed under paragraph 17 of the Restitution Act to members and employees. They do not relate to the whole Restitution Fund land, most of which probably went to outsiders of some kind.
44. Stryjan, Czechoslovak Agricultural Co-operation ..., p. 20.
45. Ibid., p. 19.
46. H. Hudečková & M. Lošt'ák, 'Různost transformace zemědělských družstev v sociální realitě', in Agrárni perspektivy II. (Transformačni fáze). Sbornik prací z vědecké konference provozné ekonomické fakulty (Prague, Vysoká škola zemědělská, 1993), pp. 110-115.
47. Gejza Blaas, Agriculture and Agricultural Policies in Slovakia 1990-95, final report on research project 'Intermediate Ownership and Farming Structures in East-Central Europe' (RSS Project No 481/1994), p. 17.
48. Unless otherwise specified, these local-level examples come from the EU-sponsored research project mentioned in note 1. This project examined the post-socialist rural transition in nine villages each in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The research combined the qualitative approach (in-depth interviews with villagers) with the quantitative approach (a representative survey of rural populations) and in each country chose three villages in regions of the economic core, three villages in the periphery and three villages in areas of economic decline because of the collapse of traditional socialist industry. A summary of the findings can be found in Nigel Swain, Rural Employment and Rural Regeneration in Post-Socialist Central Europe: Summary of Findings and the Qualitative Research, University of Liverpool, Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies, Working Papers, Rural Transition Series, No. 38, January 1997. The names used in this article are pseudonyms.
49. OECD, Review of Agricultural Policies: Hungary (Paris, 1994), p. 128. For the change in policy towards co-operative restructuring compare 173/1991 (XII.27) Korm. r. and 182/1993 (XII.30) Korm. r. Support for family farmers peaked in 1994, while the reorganisation credit, extended to co-operatives at the end of 1993, continued to rise (Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture, Vidékfejlesztési politika: Strukturális és környezetvédelmi intézkedések, Budapest, May 1996, pp. 22-23). I am grateful to Katalin Kovács for this information.
50. OECD, Review of Agricultural Policies: Hungary (Paris, 1994), p. 128. For the change in policy towards co-operative restructuring compare 173/1991 (XII.27) Korm. r. and 182/1993 (XII.30) Korm. r. Support for family farmers peaked in 1994, while the reorganisation credit, extended to co-operatives at the end of 1993, continued to rise (Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture, Vidékfejlesztési politika: Strukturális és környezetvédelmi intézkedések, Budapest, May 1996, pp. 22-23). I am grateful to Katalin Kovács for this information.
51. Námerová, 'Private Farmers ...'.
52. OECD, Review ... : Czech Republic, p. 149.
53. OECD, Review ... : Czech Republic, p. 83.
54. OECD, Review ... : Czech Republic, pp. 83-84.
55. OECD, Review ... : Czech Republic, p. 91.
56. Although relatively large estates could be put together by the heirs of wealthier farmers in Hungary, they could never be quite so large because Hungarian restitution was in principle partial.
57. I am indebted to Helena Hudečková & Michal Lošt'ák for introducing me to this farmer.
58. See Námerová & Swain, 'Co-operative Transformation ..'.
59. OECD, Review ... : Slovak Republic, p. 67.
60. Námerová, 'Private Farmers ...'; and OECD, Review ... : Slovak Republic, p. 71.
61. Námerová, 'Private Farmers ...'; and OECD, Review ... : Slovak Republic, p. 71.
62. Both cases are discussed more fully in Námerová, 'Private Farmers ...'.
63. Both these cases are also discussed more fully in Námerová, 'Private Farmers ...'.
64. Népszabadság, 29 January 1993, p. 5.
65. Katalin Kovács, 'Restructuring Hungarian Agriculture', final report on research project, 'Intermediate Ownership and Farming Structures in East-Central Europe' (RSS Project No 481/1994), p. 15.
66. See Swain, 'A Framework ...'.
67. See Swain, Agricultural Privatisation ... The figures come from Az élemiszer-gazdaság 1994. évi fejlödése. (The development of the food economy in 1994) (Budapest, Central Statistical Office, 1995), pp. 43 and 47 and A mezögazdaság 1996. évi fejlödése (The development of agriculture in 1996) (Budapest, Central Statistical Office, 1997), p. 22.
68. See Swain, Agricultural Privatisation ... The figures come from Az élemiszer-gazdaság 1994. évi fejlödése. (The development of the food economy in 1994) (Budapest, Central Statistical Office, 1995), pp. 43 and 47 and A mezögazdaság 1996. évi fejlödése (The development of agriculture in 1996) (Budapest, Central Statistical Office, 1997), p. 22.