The Hungarian Third Way Model: a reality or utopia as a political and economic alternative?

Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
The Hungarian Third Way's (HTW) movement can be associated with internationally known movements that had similar spiritual historical roots, like the "Rerum novarum", the teaching of the encyclical of Pope Leo XIII. The result of the cooperative movement at that time is today’s COOP in Bulgaria, Italy, and France. COOP plays a significant role in food production and trade. Mondragón Corporación Cooperativa (MCC) started in the Basque Country. Today it is the largest cooperative in the world. The elements of the third way can also be discovered in the so-called Scandinavian and Finnish models of social organization, which created new institutions of training and education.
HTW’s economic and social vision was close to the Rochdale model – accepting the sanctity of private property, it aimed for a new collectivist economic organization: it wanted to solve the many problems of rural, peasant society with land reform, education and other social reforms during the inter war period.
The HTW’s model was a realistic working alternative that took the political and economic conditions of the time, the local historical background, the uniqueness, and the inherited social conditions into consideration. Followers of the model believed in an organic process that carried out the desired social change in several iterative steps. Instead of wanting to cut the Gordian knot, it wanted to solve it. The presentation focuses on the political activities of Imre Kovács, studies of László Németh and Imre Somogyi. Last but not least, is the HTW relevant today?


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Ferenc Bódi Ph.D. is senior research fellow at the Institute for Political Science, HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences MTA Centre of Excellence, Budapest, Hungary. He is member of Editorial Committee of ‘Storia e Futuro,’ Bologna University Press. He is supervisor of University of Pécs, Interdisciplinary Doctor School, Political Science Program. His main research areas are local politics and self-governments, local organization of social services, rural development politics, migration, change of political regimes and contemporary social history in East Central Europe. ORCID: 0000-0003-2362-3174.