History paper by Szántó, Ildikó
Declining Hungarian Birth Rate seen in Hungarian Literature
Type of Abstract (select):Abstract (max. 250 words):
Falling birth rates had already been recorded as early as the late-eighteenth century in south-western Hungary, in the Ormánság. Low birth rate, population loss remained one of the main topics focused on by writers and sociologists in the twentieth century. The issue of decreasing Hungarian population was highlighted among the social ills in the interwar period and this was one of several subjects, which divided intellectuals into ‘populists’ and ‘urbanites’. Following the impact of the low birth rate figures in the 1960s, the populist’s views of the 1930s reappeared in the public debates in the 1960s and 1970s, till the present day. The concern of the increasing trend of the one-child families in rural settlements as well as in urban areas appeared in the various works of Hungarian writers, publicist throughout the last century. The current paper intends to focus on the intellectual background to the public debate on the population issue, outlining the accounts of the interwar ‘village explorers’ briefly, and the way they are related to the pre-Second World War populist movement. Finally the reappearance of the populists and non-populists debates of the 1970s are discussed, a debate that is still continuing.
Keywords: low birth rates, one-child families, populist, non-populists.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Ildiko Szanto received her M.A. degree in History from Macquarie University, N.S.W. She has taught interdisciplinary courses focusing on the ideological movements of the twentieth century in East-Central Europe at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences, Pázmány Péter Catholic University and the Budapest Business School.