From kolkhoz to holding company: A Hungarian agricultural producer co-operative in transition

Journal of Historical Sociology

Volumn 13, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 142-171

  Swain, Nigel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0034346890     PISSN: 09521909     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1467-6443.00111     Document Type: Article

References (55)

1. Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies, University of Liverpool. The research on which this paper is based was carried as part of an ESRC-funded research project entitled Transitions of Family Farming in Post-Socialist Central Europe (Y309 25 3037) and a project supported by the European Union (contract No. CIPA-CT92-3022). The support is gratefully acknowledged. I am also grateful to Éva Rohonyiné Kovâcs for assistance conducting some of the interviews on which the paper is based and to Katalin Kovács for her useful comments and suggestions.
2. Noble Grape, as all other names of people and places, is a pseudonym because of the potentially sensitive nature of some of the content. For this reason too sources which by their very title identify the villages concerned have not been cited. English names have been chosen because it is easier to invent English pseudonyms than Hungarian ones.
3. For both Claus Offe and Peter Gowan, for example, it is clear that this is a transition to capitalism. See Claus Offe, "Capitalism by democratic design" Democratic theory facing the triple transition in East Central Europe", Social Research, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Winter 1991), especially pp. 869 & 879 and Peter Gowan, "Neo-liberal theory and practice for Eastern Europe" New Left Review, No. 213, September/October 1995, pp. 3-60.
4. For both Claus Offe and Peter Gowan, for example, it is clear that this is a transition to capitalism. See Claus Offe, "Capitalism by democratic design" Democratic theory facing the triple transition in East Central Europe", Social Research, Vol. 58, No. 4 (Winter 1991), especially pp. 869 & 879 and Peter Gowan, "Neo-liberal theory and practice for Eastern Europe" New Left Review, No. 213, September/October 1995, pp. 3-60.
5. The appropriate literature is discussed below in the section on Noble Grape and class origins.
6. George Kolankiewicz, "Social capital and social change", British Journal of Sociology, Volume 47, No. 3 (September 1996), pp. 427-441. The role of social capital in post-socialist transition is also discussed in P Mateju, "Postcommunist Transformation - The Czech-Republic 1989-1992", Sociologický Časopis, 1993, Vol.29, No.3, pp. 341-366.
7. George Kolankiewicz, "Social capital and social change", British Journal of Sociology, Volume 47, No. 3 (September 1996), pp. 427-441. The role of social capital in post-socialist transition is also discussed in P Mateju, "Postcommunist Transformation - The Czech-Republic 1989-1992", Sociologický Časopis, 1993, Vol.29, No.3, pp. 341-366.
8. Mihály Andor, Tibor Kuczi and Nigel Swain, "Közép-Európai falvak 1990 után", in Szociológiai Szemle, 1966, No. 3-4, pp. 125-47. An English paper based on some of the same materials appeared as Mihály Andor and Tibor Kuczi, "What happened in Hungarian agriculture after 1990?", Eastern European Countryside, No. 4 (1998), pp. 83-98. See also Iveta Námerová and Nigel Swain, "Co-operative transformation and co-operative survival in Slovakia", Replika (Budapest), special issue 1998, pp. 207-221; and Mária Vincze and Nigel Swain, "Agricultural transformation and the rural labour market in Romania", Replika (Budapest), special issue 1998, pp. 191-205.
9. Mihály Andor, Tibor Kuczi and Nigel Swain, "Közép-Európai falvak 1990 után", in Szociológiai Szemle, 1966, No. 3-4, pp. 125-47. An English paper based on some of the same materials appeared as Mihály Andor and Tibor Kuczi, "What happened in Hungarian agriculture after 1990?", Eastern European Countryside, No. 4 (1998), pp. 83-98. See also Iveta Námerová and Nigel Swain, "Co-operative transformation and co-operative survival in Slovakia", Replika (Budapest), special issue 1998, pp. 207-221; and Mária Vincze and Nigel Swain, "Agricultural transformation and the rural labour market in Romania", Replika (Budapest), special issue 1998, pp. 191-205.
10. Mihály Andor, Tibor Kuczi and Nigel Swain, "Közép-Európai falvak 1990 után", in Szociológiai Szemle, 1966, No. 3-4, pp. 125-47. An English paper based on some of the same materials appeared as Mihály Andor and Tibor Kuczi, "What happened in Hungarian agriculture after 1990?", Eastern European Countryside, No. 4 (1998), pp. 83-98. See also Iveta Námerová and Nigel Swain, "Co-operative transformation and co-operative survival in Slovakia", Replika (Budapest), special issue 1998, pp. 207-221; and Mária Vincze and Nigel Swain, "Agricultural transformation and the rural labour market in Romania", Replika (Budapest), special issue 1998, pp. 191-205.
11. Mihály Andor, Tibor Kuczi and Nigel Swain, "Közép-Európai falvak 1990 után", in Szociológiai Szemle, 1966, No. 3-4, pp. 125-47. An English paper based on some of the same materials appeared as Mihály Andor and Tibor Kuczi, "What happened in Hungarian agriculture after 1990?", Eastern European Countryside, No. 4 (1998), pp. 83-98. See also Iveta Námerová and Nigel Swain, "Co-operative transformation and co-operative survival in Slovakia", Replika (Budapest), special issue 1998, pp. 207-221; and Mária Vincze and Nigel Swain, "Agricultural transformation and the rural labour market in Romania", Replika (Budapest), special issue 1998, pp. 191-205.
12. David Stark, "Path dependence and privatisation strategies in East Central Europe", East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 17-54.
13. Karl Marx, "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte", in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Works in One Volume, London, Lawrence and Wishart, 1968, p. 97.
14. Nigel Swain, "The evolution of Hungary's agricultural system since 1967", in P.G. Hare, H.K. Radice and N. Swain (eds.) Hungary: a Decade of Economic Reform, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1981, pp. 240-44.
15. Nigel Swain, "Hungarian agriculture in the early 1980s: retrenchment followed by reform", Soviet Studies, Vol. XXXIX, No. 1 (January 1987), pp. 24-39.
16. Nigel Swain, Collective Farms…, p. 201.
17. Nigel Swain, Collective Farms …, pp. 43-45.
18. Nigel Swain, Collective Farms., pp. 60-78. From interviews with former co-operative members in the former Czechoslovakia and GDR, it is clear that the state bought more extensively from household plots in these countries than is often recognised and that income from such sales constituted a significant source of additional income for members. But the co-operatives were not actively involved in encouraging or organising such activity as they were in Hungary.
19. There is some mystery surrounding the replacement of Mr. Alexander. His drinking problem was not widely know because he drank in secret. One story claims that he lost the good will of the county party secretary (a notorious individual who ruled the county as a personal fiefdom during the socialist years and committed suicide when socialism fell) because his wife shot, while hunting, an animal that the party secretary wanted to kill himself. According to this view, Mr Franks was the county party secretary's man. Whether or not this is true, Mr. Franks could not have had the career that he did if he had not been at least acceptable in the eyes of the county party secretary. Another variant makes no mention of the reason for Mr Alexander's fall from grace and merely argues that Mr Franks, as the party secretary's man, needed a "good" co-operative to manage.
20. N. Swain, Hungary: The Rise and Fall of Feasible Socialism, London, Verso, 1992, pp. 136-8.
21. N. Swain, Hungary: The Rise and Fall …, p. 8.
22. See for example János Kornai, "The Hungarian reform process: visions, hopes and reality", in Victor Nee and David Stark (eds.), Remaking the Economic Institutions of Socialism, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1989, pp. 32-94.
23. Námerová and Swain "Co-operative transformation… ".
24. This is if the accession to power of the first democratically elected government is seen as the beginning of political democracy. The period is nine months if the successful conclusion of the Opposition Round Table negotiations is the preferred indicator of democracy.
25. 94/1988. (XII.22.) MT.r. and 1989-es XV. Tv.
26. Nigel Swain, The Smallholders Party versus the Green Barons: Class Relations in the Restructuring of Hungarian Agriculture, University of Liverpool, Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies Working Paper, Rural Transition Series No. 8, June 1993.
27. Nigel Swain, Central European Agricultural Structures in Transition, Frankfurter Institut für Transformationsstudien, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Arbeitsberichte No. 3/99, pp. 7-13; Katalin Kovács, "The Transition in Hungarian Agriculture", in Ray Abrahams (ed.) After Socialism: Land Reform and Social Change in Eastern Europe, Providence and Oxford, 1996, pp. 51-84.
28. Nigel Swain, Central European Agricultural Structures in Transition, Frankfurter Institut für Transformationsstudien, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Arbeitsberichte No. 3/99, pp. 7-13; Katalin Kovács, "The Transition in Hungarian Agriculture", in Ray Abrahams (ed.) After Socialism: Land Reform and Social Change in Eastern Europe, Providence and Oxford, 1996, pp. 51-84.
29. Examples of the importance of social capital in the form of contacts and cultural capital in the form of the ability to think in millions and the courage to take out loans are given in Andor, Kuczi and Swain, "Közép-Európai falvak… " p. 139.
30. Swain, Central European Agricultural Structures…; Mihály Andor and Tibor Kuczi, "Halvány körvonalak", Kritika, 1997, No. 3, pp. 19-23.
31. Swain, Central European Agricultural Structures…; Mihály Andor and Tibor Kuczi, "Halvány körvonalak", Kritika, 1997, No. 3, pp. 19-23.
32. Kovács, "The Transition… " and "Strengths, controversies… ".
33. Nigel Swain, The Legislative Framework for Agricultural Transition in Hungary, University of Liverpool, Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies Working Paper, Rural Transition Series No. 25, Winter 1994, p. 10.
34. For a discussion of Hungary's land auctions, see Nigel Swain, "Getting land in Central Europe", in Ray Abrahams (ed.), After Socialism…, pp. 204-215.
35. Most members did not farm their newly acquired land themselves but rented it back to the cereals-growing subsidiary company of Noble Grape PLC. The number of land-owners is so high because in Hungary, as elsewehere in Central and Eastern Europe, most land reverted to people no longer active in co-operative agriculture. Nationally only 29 per cent of former co-operatively-farmed land reverted to active co-operative members or employees. For Hungary see Kovács "The Transition in Hungarian… ", p. 66. For other Central European countries see Swain, Central European Agricultural Structures…, pp. 11-212
36. Most members did not farm their newly acquired land themselves but rented it back to the cereals-growing subsidiary company of Noble Grape PLC. The number of land-owners is so high because in Hungary, as elsewehere in Central and Eastern Europe, most land reverted to people no longer active in co-operative agriculture. Nationally only 29 per cent of former co-operatively-farmed land reverted to active co-operative members or employees. For Hungary see Kovács "The Transition in Hungarian… ", p. 66. For other Central European countries see Swain, Central European Agricultural Structures…, pp. 11-212
37. Kovács, "The Transition in Hungarian… ", pp. 64-68.
38. Iván Szelényi, Socialist Entrepreneurs, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1988, passim but esp. pp. 210-12.
39. Tibor Kuczi, György Lengyel, Beáta Nagy and Ágnes Vajda, "Vállalkozók és potenciális vállalkozók. Az önállósodás eselyei", Sázadvég, 1992, No. 2-3.
40. Iván Szelényi, Harmadik Út" Polgárosódás a vidéki Magyarországon, Budapest, Akadémiai Kiadó, 1992, pp. 7-19.
41. Szelényi, Harmadik Út…, p. 15.
42. Ákos Róna-Tas, "The first shall be last" Entrepreneurship and communist cadres in the transition from socialism", American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 100, No. 1 (July 1994), pp. 40-69.
43. Gil Eyal, Iván Szelényi and Eleanor Townsley, "The Theory of Post-Communist Managerialism", New Left Review, No. 222, March/April 1997, pp. 60-92. Hanley is cited in Iván Szelényi and Eric Kostello, "The Market Transition Debate: Towards a Synthesis?", in American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 101, No. 4 (January 1996), pp. 1093-4.
44. Gil Eyal, Iván Szelényi and Eleanor Townsley, "The Theory of Post-Communist Managerialism", New Left Review, No. 222, March/April 1997, pp. 60-92. Hanley is cited in Iván Szelényi and Eric Kostello, "The Market Transition Debate: Towards a Synthesis?", in American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 101, No. 4 (January 1996), pp. 1093-4.
45. David Stark, "From system identity to organisational diversity… ", pp. 302-3.
46. Andor and Kuczi, "Halvány körvonalak". See also Swain, Central European Agricultural Structures…, pp. 27-31.
47. Swain, Central European Agricultural …, pp. 30-31. The unmodified Szelényi case might perhaps fit better Slovak developments. Although the study makes no claim to be representative, Iveta Námerová's study of 25 private farmers, most of whom emerged through the "first economy" rather than the "second economy" route, reveals that all came from families which had had relatively larger farms before the socialist period. See Iveta Námerová, "Private farmers in Slovakia: genesis, composition, conflict", in Eastern European Countryside, No. 5, 1999, pp. 59-74.
48. Swain, Central European Agricultural …, pp. 30-31. The unmodified Szelényi case might perhaps fit better Slovak developments. Although the study makes no claim to be representative, Iveta Námerová's study of 25 private farmers, most of whom emerged through the "first economy" rather than the "second economy" route, reveals that all came from families which had had relatively larger farms before the socialist period. See Iveta Námerová, "Private farmers in Slovakia: genesis, composition, conflict", in Eastern European Countryside, No. 5, 1999, pp. 59-74.
49. Szelényi and Kostello, "The Market Transition Debate… ", p. 1093.
50. Swain, Central European Agricultural Structures…
51. Kovás, "The Transition… ", p. 59.
52. Kovács, "Strengths, controversies… ", p. 176.
53. Swain, Central European Agricultural Structures… ; Námerová, "Private farmers in Slovakia… ".
54. Swain, Central European Agricultural Structures… ; Námerová, "Private farmers in Slovakia… ".
55. Swain, Central European Agricultural Structures…, pp. 13-16.