Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1986 (14. évfolyam, 47-50. szám)

1986 / 50. szám

facto independence of enterprise in implementing a decision to adopt a given technology; and those which serve to make problematic the calculations of the costs compared to the benefits adopting an innovation. Therefore, a reduction on mean waiting time before adoption by successive enterprises may not occur as time passes. The domestic environment for enterprise decisions over technology adoption is examined. Factors are divided into those affecting relations between the enterprise and the central authorities, and those affecting relations within and between enterprises. These correspond roughly to system effects of the first and second type respectively. Three case studies are offered. The first is examining the hypothesis of system effects on diffusion; the second is the case of the numerical diffusion controlled machine tools; and the third is the adoption by state and cooperative farms of articulated agricultural production technologies. These technologies are available under the auspices of agricultural production systems. There are proprietary organizations which compete for the voluntary membership of individual farms and are operated for profit. It is argued that the nature of the economic institutions in this sector allowed the self-assembly of a “mesosphere”, an instrument for coordination located between the central authorities and the basic production units. This has served to obviate those problems associated with technology diffusion that have appeared in the industrial branches.

Patrias, Carmela Katalin (U. of Toronto, 1985) “Patriots and Proletarians: the Politicization of Hungarian Immigrants in Canada, 1924-1946.” Microfilm and xerox number: n.a.

Hungarian immigrants in Canada between the two world wars were divided into two mutually exclusive and antagonistic camps, each with its own institutional structure and ideology. To one camp belonged the secular and religious associations united by their willingness to support the Horthy regime in Hungary, their accommodationist stance to Canadian society, and their opposition to Communism. To the other camp belonged the mass organizations of the Communist party. These organizations were opposed to the Horthy regime, anticlerical and intent on bringing about a radical transformation of Canadian society. Most Hungarian immigrants joined the most exploited, least steadily employed segment of the Canadian working class, and shortly after theirarrival, thecoming of the Great Depression hurled them into the ranks of the unemployed. Since their status as foreigners compounded theirdisadvantageous class position and prevented them from gaining access to the source of power in Canadian society, these immigrants were forced to rely almost exclusively on their ethnic communities. Since most Hungarian immigrants came from the lower strata of Hungarian rural society, and since in their native land they had been excluded from political and associational life, their experiences can explain the emergence of a broad range of ethnic organizations among them plus the politicization of life within these organizations. This study contends that a small minority of middle class immigrants, clergy, urban artisans, communist party functionaries, and forces from outside the ethnic group, most notably the Hungarian government provided the leadership and ideology, and fashioned the organizational structure of each of the two camps within the ethnic group. They used social and cultural activities within ethnic associations to gain adherents among immigrants.

DISSERTATIONS (Continued)

NO. 50, VINTER, 1986-1987, HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER

Kontra, Miklós, and Catherine Ringen. “Hungarian Vowel Harmony: The Evidence from Loanwords.” Ural-Altaische Jahrbücher (Ural-Altaic Yearbooks) 58 (1986):1-14.

In the standard (Budapest) dialect of Hungarian, vowels can be divided linguistically into two sets: the harmonicand the neutral vowels, and the harmonic vowels again divided into front harmonic vowels and back harmonic vowels. The latter two are mutually exclusive, i.e., front harmonic vowels do not occur in words with back vowels and vice versa. The authors challenge the validity of the hypothesis in words borrowed from other languages. They also challenge the status of the vowel “e” which some linguists classify as a front harmonic vowel while others as a neutral vowel because its occurrence in some native roots with back vowels. The authors argue the latter. Kontra is on the faculty of the Kossuth L.U. and Ringen on that of the U. of Iowa. □

Klay, Andor C. “Bartók on Liszt.” The Journal of the American Liszt Society, vol. 20 (December 1986).

When Bartók was elected to membership in the Royal Hungarian Academy of Sciences, he had chosen Liszt for his

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ARTICLES & PAPERS

Stroup, Edsel Walter (U. of Akron, 1986) “Hungary Under Noble Leadership and Habsburg Rule: 1830-1844, with Emphasis on the Issues of Peasant Liberation and Tax Reform.” 348 pages. Microfilm and xerox number: DA 8613645.

Hungary experienced a reform movement led by nobles that began in 1830. The reforming nobles wished to alter virtually every institution and practice of Hungarian society. Their ultimate goal was the dismantlement of Hungary’s ancien régime and the establishment of a modern State. The Habsburg kings were opposed to any change in Hungarian conditions. They stirred up conservative and reactionary elements in Hungary, which included most of the titled magnates, the Crown-appointed officeholders, the poor nobles, the burgher oligarchs in the Royal Free Cities, and shifting segments of the middling nobles. When this policy failed, the Habsburgs resorted to a posture of minimal concession lasting from 1834 to early 1840 and born out of their need for Hungarian cooperation in the case of war. The reforming nobles did not achieve total victory, but they made remarkable progress. They influenced public opinion in favor of reform. They persuaded the nobles at large to pay Dietal expenses. They promoted civic-religious equality and freedom of assembly, speech, and publication. They submitted an exemplary revision of the criminal code. They advocated national control of tarifs. They ameliorated the lord-subject relationship and secured temporary majorities in the Diet for peasant liberation. While the latter goals did not materialize, they did open a legal path for the peasant to achieve civic equality and land ownership. They also won Dietal majorities in favor of tax reform, although this objective fell short of realization. They even won royal sanction for legislation that put commercial affairs on a more modern footing and spelled the beginning of the end of Hungary’s ancien régime. In fact, by 1844 the reforming nobles had presented Hungary with virtually the entire program soon to be realized in the 1848 Revolution.

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