State and organized interests in post-communist Hungarian politics

The paper reviews different approaches to the study of both the state and civil society in post-communist East Central Europe and questions the predominant view in the literature that civil society in the region is weak. Existing research has focused on the one hand, on the elitist character of the state and the growing strength of the central executive within government, and on the other hand, on the low levels of grassroots involvement in interest groups and civic associations. Drawing on data from two different research projects on Hungary, one on the state, the other on interest group politics, the paper suggests there is evidence of more effective interest representation and more dynamic inter-relations between state and society than is usually assumed