Comparisons - Central European Villages Repeatedly Visited

Whereas in my earlier comparison of Hungary and Poland through these two villages I emphasized their contrasting paths (Hann 1979), after a decade of postsocialism I am more inclined to stress the similarities. Transformation has been less marked in Wislok. The village remains thoroughly marginal and free of capitalist family farmers, though social inequalities are considerable (notably because of the poverty of the ex-State Farm population). The number of entrepreneurial farmers eagerly looking forward to competing within EU frameworks is also small in Tázlár, though the transformation did produce a few winners as well as losers. Popular evaluations in both locations are predominantly negative. People do not feel that strengthening private property rights has made them better off, because they see very clearly that many of their social entitlements (to a job, to free health care etc) have been seriously undermined in the transition to capitalism. They are also aware of increasing relative deprivation, vis-á-vis the urban sector . The attrition of entitlements is sometimes spoken of by villagers, in both countries, as virtually the equivalent of a diminution of their property rights. This justifies the broad approach taken to property in the work of the Property Relations department at the Max Planck Institute.