Ságvári Ágnes (szerk.): Budapest. The History of a Capital (Budapest, 1975)

Budapest in the First Twenty Years of the Council System (1950-1970)

The economic situation in the country and the capital, the number of tasks confronting the Budapest Council, together with the creation of a network of cultural, educational and health institutions of a new type demanded centralized resources and guidance. The use of independent revenues, distribution and planning had to be centralized. At the same time as this centralization was organized—a justifiable measure in the revolutionary transformation of society—conflicts arose. While the mass contacts of the councils became stronger, they were also subordinated to the Government, i.e. the Ministry of the Interior as in the past. The specialized administrative organs were thus subjected to a double control, by the Executive Committee of the local Council on the one hand and by the Ministry on the other. As most of the institutions operating in the council areas came under the various Ministries, the financial and economic independence of the local councils was reduced, and with it their powers of control.

With these experiences in mind the Council Act II of 1954 abolished supervision by the Ministry of the Interior, extended the powers of the councils, determined the duties and responsibilities of the specialized administrative bodies, and provided a more precise definition of their powers. From 1954 to approximately 1960, while the system of double control was still maintained, preparations were made to increase the powers of the Council in the direction and supervision of municipal institutions. From 1960 on parallel with the plans for the new system of economic management—the powers of the councils were extended through several thousand modifications of statutes. The Ministries moved from detailed responsibility for concrete measures to the work of general guidance on the national level, and several thousand institutions were placed directly under the councils. These included housing, communal investment in town-planning, hospitals, and following the primary and secondary schools, the technical schools as well, as well as many cultural institutions such as theatres, museums, archives, etc.

The administrative and economic powers of the councils were considerably extended by the Presidium decree of 18th February 1958, which gave the councils town-planning powers, and further subsidies to villages, towns and cities. The additional powers of the councils, as well as the actual timing of the elections (two years after the counter-revolution) lent particular importance to the November 1958 elections, in which 98 per cent of the population voted, sending 300 members to the Budapest Council and 2,986 members to the district councils.

Commanding increased resources, in 1960 the Budapest Council introduced a longrange project of town planning and other developments parallel with the preparation of the fifteen-year housing plan. This finally evolved in 1970, after a great deal of public discussion into “the town-plan of general development for Budapest and its surroundings”.

Achievements and Problems in the Fifties

The principal tasks facing the Council in the fifties were the integration of Greater Budapest, now recognized and established in the administrative sense into a unified city, the further industrialization of the capital of Hungary to match its historic role, and the organization of municipal life rapidly expanding as a result of these changes; then supplies, schooling, and the satisfaction of Budapest’s growing cultural and social needs. In the old

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