There is a great debate in the European Union on the present role of nation states, and on the role of state sovereignty on their importance in the future. Some say that the concept of nation states is out-of-date and incapable of facing the challenges of the modern world, while others believe that the nation state is a means of dealing with modern challenges. The key questions of the disagreement are the place and role of nation states in the European Union and the interdependent sovereignty of modern states. This study joins the discussion by reviewing the history of the Hungarian state sovereignty and its ethnical background. The second aim of this paper is to provide a historical contribution to the current discussion with outlining some details of the historical trends and external views on Hungarian ethnicity and state sovereignty.

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This paper overviews the economic history of Hungary in the last 100 years, and especially the convergence process to the advanced economies which was hindered by severe external shocks, two world wars, global economic crises and the suppression by the Soviet Union. After the political transition of 1990, many expected a rapid economic miracle, but the economic transition period was prolonged for 20 years. Thus, the sustainable convergence has started only after 2010 when the necessary fiscal, monetary and structural reforms were implemented. The most important lesson we can draw from our economic history is that economic growth cannot be sustained without financial balance, thus economic policy has to find the effective and targeted measures to enhance economic growth and macrofinancial balance at the same time.

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Domestic language use makes a distinction between organisations established on the basis of the internal needs and initiatives of civil society, and non-governmental organisations, the latter understood as formations created and operated as local agents of international networks, from foreigners’ intent and funding. Although their presence in the world is nothing new, the current large volume of such organisations is the product of globalism and the pursuit of global control is the cause of their wide spread, extent and network-like set-up and operation. The one-way direction from the starting point of the influence towards the target areas evokes the situations of classical colonisation, although using the soft and hybrid tools adapted to our era. For this reason, as new forms of foreign intrusion and intervention, they should necessarily deserve the national security attention and approach that was once evoked by the former forms, regardless of how this can be achieved in today’s legal situation. However, the lack of distinction and the inherent conceptual ambiguity already a priori show the intention to hide the genuine features of the latter.

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Civil life works well and is highly active in Hungary, as presented by the authors supported by statistical data. In terms of their activities, organisational sizes and locations, associations and foundations in today’s Hungary give an extremely diverse picture. Year by year, the financial opportunities available for the civil sector increase and resources are provided for the proactive performance of their tasks. Overall, state aid, which has increased to more than 2.5 times of its original amount since 2010, has been able to effectively support the favourable developments that have taken place in this sector, and this helps the lives of many of us, making them more useful and productive, precisely because of the diversity of civil activities. Compared to other countries in the region, we can see that the legal and organisational framework of civil autonomy is ensured at a high level in Hungary, and in terms of content, community building is of paramount importance in everyday life.

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Whereas the Helsinki Final Act’s impact in the Soviet bloc is usually defined by the resistance and pressure inspired by ‘basket three’ human rights clauses, the part of the accord that the Soviet Union desired was at least as significant, especially for Hungary. The Soviets presumed that formal Western acknowledgement of the post-war settlement – a long-term foreign policy – would ensure its permanence. But the acceptance of post-war borders actually imperilled Soviet control in Central and Eastern Europe because it accentuated the contradiction between the de facto subjugation of independent states in the region and their de jure independence, while enshrining the latter, thereby strengthening the hands of those within these states who wished to extend and expand their independence from Moscow, economically and culturally. A key example and test case of this process was the fate of Hungary’s Holy Crown, which had been in American custody. Employing both primary sources and secondary texts, this new analysis contends that it was precisely what the Soviets had hoped for in a European Security Conference that proved most damaging to control of its sphere of influence, and that, in Hungary, the return of the Holy Crown represented exactly the goal of restored sovereignty that Helsinki endorsed, despite Soviet intentions to the contrary.

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Knowledge flow is described by two contradicting theories. One of them claims that knowledge can only be put in practice if in addition to written elements, its tacit parts can also be transferred. This is why proximity and a common culture matter, and RDI (research, development and innovation) intense activities tend to spatially concentrate. According to the other theory, governmental RDI expenditure is a good way to reduce regional gaps. In this paper EU’s Horizon 2020 research funding framework data is analysed and efforts are made at deciding which theory is confirmed by them. Should the leaders in innovation have a different RDI policy than those with poorer RDI results? An overview is given of the main policy debates that form and influence national and supranational research, development and innovation policy frameworks and subsidising systems. The current state of the Hungarian RDI sector is described and conclusions are drawn on subsidisation policy in light of the H2020 data.

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The most recent guideline of the Hungarian Accreditation Committee about the applications submitted by university professors subject to the requirements published in July 2019 entered into force on 1 September 2019. This document establishes new general minimum publication requirements for applicants, supplemented by special requirements for the specific areas. These requirements were necessitated by changes in the international academic paradigm, which encourages the issue of Q1 and Q2 level publications. The purpose of this paper is to examine compliance with these requirements by university professors who received their title in the past three years. The findings show that only 23 per cent comply fully with the general minimum requirements, with a 40 per cent full compliance with the supplementary requirements of the field of economics and business, and a 10 per cent in the field of social sciences.

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The topic of this study is the intensification of competition in different dimensions of higher education in the European and global space. This is examined in light of globalisation and the concomitant reduction in transaction costs. Changes in transaction costs, European regional integration and the impact of globalisation are discussed in a broader sense, and within the scope of higher education. It is argued that reduction in the transaction costs is both a driving force and a consequence of regional integration and globalisation in higher education, and more specifically, it forces both national higher educational systems and individual higher education institutions into a very sharp system of regional and global interdependence. The challenges faced by less developed regions of the European Union, i.e. the southern and central European peripheries, and the opportunities offered in the European integration processes, have been highlighted and the emphasize is drawn upon them.

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The progress made by the entrepreneurial university, which is a newly emerging category in Hungarian higher education after its change of model, has not only deepened relations between universities and the industry and intensified the technology and knowledge transfer processes, but also increased the role of universities in shaping regional innovation policy. This transformation places co-operation between the actors of the regional innovation ecosystem and the relationships between the economic, governmental and academic systems into a new framework. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of the change in the model through a specific example, and to outline the future possibilities of university involvement in the currently changing Hungarian innovation policy system.

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In the 1970’s and 1980’s, foreign trade deficit was accompanied by a high budget deficit. To understand the process, it is essential to answer two questions. One of them is: Was there a causal relationship between the two? The other is: How did they correlate with the investment cycle? After an analysis of the issue, it is concluded that the cyclical surge in investment was the common reason behind both deficits. Pick-up in investment projects and the increase in production required substantial imports. On the other hand, project financing also increased the budget deficit. By imposing restraints on CAPEX projects, imports could be temporarily reduced and budget expenditures could decline. In foreign trade, curbing was faster, while the improvement of the budgetary position took longer.

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The current system of Hungarian local finance and taxation has evolved through consecutive changes since 1990. Among the many amendments to the underlying law, a couple of milestones and junctions should be pointed out. The signature of the European Charter of Local-Self Government in 1994 had symbolic importance. The comprehensive reform after 2010 was the biggest milestone without a doubt, because a new constitution and a new act on local governments were adopted by Parliament. Furthermore, it was also decisive that the central government bailed out local governments. Three different models of confining local borrowing have been applied so far. The market-reliance model was replaced by passive control in 1996. Active control came into force in 2012. A closed-list approach of local taxation was applied until 2015, when the open/-list model was introduced. Even though reforms have been put in place, local business tax still prevails in the Hungarian system of local taxation, as roughly 80 per cent of all local tax revenues come from this fiscal levy. Counties were assigned power to impose local taxes in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus legislation. Before this reform only local governments had been authorised by law to impose local taxes.

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