Külpolitika - A Magyar Külügyi Intézet elméleti-politikai folyóirata - 1975 (2. évfolyam)

1975 / 1. szám - A tanulmányok orosz és angol nyelvű tartalmi kivonata

Frigyes Púja: Thirty years of Hungarian foreign policy

A survey of the last thirty years, the most important objectives of Hungarian foreign policy in this period and the results achieved. Three stages are distinguished. Following 1945 the first thing that had to be done was to redefine the foreign policy alignments of the country, defence against attempted interference by the imperialist powers, and laying the foundations of cooperation with the Soviet Union and the people’s democracies. Progress that favoured the extension of contacts abroad was interrupted by the 1956 counter-revolution.

Between 1956 and the middle ’sixties the Government of the Hungarian People’s Republic — thanks to successes at home and the support of the socialist countries — managed to overcome the foreign policy consequences of the counter-revolution. Since then Hungarian foreign policy has become more active, showing greater initiative, exploiting all the possibilities offered to further the interests of the Hungarian people and the socialist community.

The main objectives of the policy of the Hungarian People’s Republic are summed up, a number of concrete and timely questions are discussed in detail, and a number of lessons that can be drawn from the experience of thirty years, which one can consider of general validity, are finally listed.

Ferenc Ko^ma: Signs of crisis in the capitalist world and socialist strategy

Following the 1929—1933 Great Depression and as the result of an economic policy of the Keynesian type, major structural changes took place in capitalist society and in its economy, altering the way in which basic contradictions became manifest.

Disturbances in the metabolism of the capitalist world economy are here analysed. The most serious one is the polarization between developed countries growing at a fast rate, and the developing ones that cannot recover from their backwardness, finding themselves in an increasingly hopeless position as the result of the modus operandi of the capitalist economy. The labour power of several hundred million men and women remains unexploited, and their bare conditions of existence are not ensured.

Another aspect of these troubles is the waste of natural resources. Full employment in developed capitalist countries can only be ensured by a wasteful exploitation of resources. One must differentiate between the acute and chronic stage of the crisis. A third symptom is the ecological crisis.

Such metabolic disorders are accompanied by „nervous” ones. The traditional and economically rational value system finds itself in a state of disquilibrium. This is manifest in both the growing inflation and the foreign exchange crisis. A Marxist view on inflation is given. According to the author, any radical brake put on it promptly brings latent over-production to the surface, and all the connected cyclical crisis symptoms.

It is argued that present crisis symptoms are rooted in the capitalist system, it is therefore unlikely that an effective solution will be found, even in the long run. It is likely that given the struggle of various competitive capitalist power centres the American economy and multinational enterprises will come out on top at the end of the acute stage, though no radical changes in power relations can be expected. The acute stage will very likely be concluded by compromises, though these will not be a real solution either for the basic metabolic troubles or those of a financial and monetary nature.

It is likely that a way out will be looked for in a modernized Keynesian policy. In this respect there are still major reserves at disposal such as a reform of the monetary system, increased investments of a social policy nature, or in the developing countries, and a new boost to East-West trade.

In the acute stage contradictions between power-centres could well become sharper, primarily that between developing and developed capitalist countries, that between the United States and other capitalist countries, especially with the West-European integration. There could also be troubles at home in various developed countries, both of an economic and political nature. There is a danger that these could lead to smaller of larger conflicts.

The existence and development of the socialist world may have a soothing effect, given favourable political conditions. The Western economic crisis can at the same time havean unfavourable effect on developments in the socialist world economy. The socialist countries can counteract this by a carefully thought out and coordinated foreign trade strategy. The most imVII