Civil Society and Policy Actors in Post-communist Hungary: Linkages and Contexts

Abstract

Abstract The paper seeks to contribute to the debate on the political strength or weakness of civil society in Eastern Europe by focusing directly on relations between social actors and policy-makers in the broader context of the post-communist political settlement in Hungary. Drawing on concepts from the literature on polity and governance, the paper takes the example on social policy-making in Hungary in the late 1990s and early 2000s to explore the complex relations between civil society organisations and policy-makers in successive governments' attempts to legislate on hospital privatisation.