The New Hungarian Quarterly Autumn 1989. [antikvár]

MARKET ECONOMY AND DEMOCRACY by MIKLÓS NÉMETH In the crisis of adaptation subsequent to a slump that lasted fifteen years, we are looking for the ways and means that will take us out of the present impasse» It has become clear that what is at the back of difficulties in restructuring the economy is the crisis of the model of extensive growth associated with socialism since 1948/49» The post-1945 process of trying to catch up with the leaders led to considerable results but was prodigal of the material and human resources of production. It consumed the productive energies of society without providing for their reproduction. The extensive model thus included distortions from the very start. The need for innovation became evident by the mid-1960s. The Stalinist features of the political system, however, aborted any change in spite of the fact that the world economic processes of the 1970s particularly highlighted the weak spots of the extensive growth model. This is where we must start when looking for an answer to the question most frequently asked in our days: How have we got here, where are those responsible for our plight? Severe and unsparing criticism and self-criticism are indispensable in the current situation. This is the time for a reckoning. But it would be suicidal to decimate our own ranks in a feverish search for truth. For decades we have lived in an utterly divided world. Messages full of confidence issued from the laager. Those messages were about catching up and outstripping the leaders, about the irresistible advance of the idea and the system, about our sense of superiority. They contested the viability of any other type of system. This self-confidence chimed in with Lucifer's arrogance: