The title suggests that in the past Hungary belonged to the family of European countries having the same traditions, the same economic development and the same political structure. The forty-year gap from 1948 to 1989 proved to be a very painful and unsuccessful historical detour that the Hungarian people never really accepted. In this volume the Hungarian and foreign authors - analyse the way Hungary has covered in the last decade. Their answers to the sophisticated conceptual questions of the Hungarian transformation procedure present a far from simplified view of the recent situation. Instead, the various studies reflect the achievements and failures, hopes and disappointments, economic results and social problems that have characterised the last ten years. Moreover, they show that although after one decade the transition is still in process, the market economy can be considered well established in Hungary. Besides the Hungarian transition, the book deals with the most relevant theoretical problems of transition in general as well. Readers of this volume may be university students, observers and researchers of the Eastern and Central European transition processes, and all those who are interested in this very exciting historical period of Hungarian economic transformation.
