Fascism in the Contemporary World

the equivalent of US$150 per month. A food basket (one loaf of bread﷓﷓one pound, one package of butter﷓﷓one pound, one liter of milk, six ounces of ham, one chocolate bar﷓﷓four ounce, and four bottles of beer﷓﷓one liter﷓﷓costs the approximate equivalent of US$4.15 in Hungary. Neither the macro nor the micro economic situation in contemporary Hungary is inviting or palatable. Inflation in 1994 is running at 22 percent and the unemployment rate is 12 percent (Williams, 1994, p. B5).State﷓owned enterprises and cooperatives continue to exist in Hungary, although the reform government, a coalition of the Hungarian Democratic Forum and the Alliance of Free Democrats, that was defeated in the election in May 1994, has offered the more profitable state﷓owned enterprises to foreign interests at fire﷓sale prices (Torok, 1993, pp. 366﷓384). The early give﷓away of state assets under the reform government's privatization program led to such public outcry that the State Property Agency was established to introduce some degree of equity and order into the process. Hungarians particularly resented to transfer of state﷓owned assets to foreign entities. One outcome of privatization that has caused considerable public resentment is the reduction in the levels of unemployment compensation (Bonin, 1992, pp. 716﷓732). The potential for this outcome to threaten the entire economic reform process was ignored by the reform government. In banking, privatization permitted foreign investor to come into the Hungarian economy and buy up all of the profitable industrial banking sectors (Moore, 1993, pp. 141﷓143). The result is that the country's retail banking sector has been allowed to languish, an outcome that has resulted in additional public resentment toward the reform government.Right﷓wing political activity in contempo...