Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)

Zsolt Gál: Argentina on the Danube - Populist Economic Policy as the Biggest Enemy of Sustainable Economic Growth

Argentina on the Danube...

egalitarianism is concerned, identical surveys produced the following figures: 51.7%, 58.9% and 55.8% (Krivý, 2001, p. 300).17 To the question of “to what degree was it inevitable to change the economic model from before 1989?” most respondents (particularly older ones) answered “none” or “cosmetic” while only a minority of respondents preferred free market economy.

Table 5

Views of the Slovak public regarding inevitability of the economic reform after 1989 and preferred type of economy

Age category

Question: Was it inevitable to carry out the economic reform after 1989? The degree of inevitable change according to respondents should be:

NoneCosmetic

Fundamental

1

don’t know

18-34

7%

40%

33%

21%

35-54

13%

51%

32%

4%

Over 55

28%

49%

20%

4%

Age category

Question: If you could choose, what type of economy would you prefer?

SocialistSocial-market

Free market

1

don’t know

18-34

8%

43%

35%

15%

35-54

23%

50%

22%

5%

Over 55

38%

40%

11%

12%

Note: A public opinion survey carried out by the Institute for Public Affairs in September 2003. Source: Krivý, Vladimír: "Are There Any Changes at All?" in: Meseinikov, Grigorij - Gyárfášová, Oľga (eds.): Slovakia: Ten Years of Independence and the Year of Reform (Bratislava: Institute for Public Affairs, 2004, p. 162).

Paternalistic and egalitarian attitudes were the strongest among supporters of anti-reform and left-wing (i.e. populist) parties. The survey divided respondents into three categories according to their value orientations; the first category comprised respondents with weakest paternalistic attitudes while the third comprised the strongest paternalists. In March 2000, almost half (48.2%) of all HZDS supporters belonged to the latter category while only one in six of them (16%) belonged to the former one; SNS sympathizers declared similar values (39.6% vs. 30.7%) while SDKÚ supporters stood on the opposite pole as only 10.5% of them were in the latter category and 72.2% of them were in the former category (Gyárfášová - Krivý - Velšic et al, 2001, p. 381). Public opinion surveys also revealed that paternalism usually coincides with values such as authoritarianism, ethnic intolerance and anti-Western attitudes.

The Hungarians manifest similarly strong paternalistic attitudes as the Slovaks; perhaps the only difference is that there are no significant disparities between particular political parties’ supporters, which goes especially for the two major parties, i.e. the MSZP and Fidesz. According to a survey carried out in 2007, supporters of ‘right-wing’ Fidesz proved to be even

207