How Orbán Won? Neoliberal Disenchantment and the Grand Strategy of Financial Nationalism to Reconstruct Capitalism and Regain Autonomy

Disenchantment with global finance in Central-Eastern Europe enabled financial nationalism to emerge as a counter-hegemonic strategy. In Hungary, Prime Minister Orbán put forth his explicit aim to increase domestic ownership in banking to over 50% and legitimized the ensuing re-nationalization of the financial sector with resentment over neoliberal banking practices. The article describes how the financial crisis created an opportunity for Orbán and his allies to usher in a new era of financial ownership structures. It provides a critical political economy analysis of how the Orbán government selected economic sectors to target and how it used a network of associated private actors in its quest to re-nationalize and then re-privatize major banks to a newly created elite, the ‘national capitalists’. In this, financial nationalism constituted a grand strategy to reconstruct Hungarian capitalism in order to regain autonomy and assure long-term political survival within a liberal EU context.1. Introduction 2. Theory 3. Empirical analysis 4. Conclusion Footnotes Reference

Characterisation of moulds from apple fruit in Hungary

The surface microbial contamination is of great interest in case of fruit because of the threat of postharvest spoilage. Apple is a valuable product from growing, commercial, as well as from nutritional points of view. Apple diseases during the growing season can be satisfactorily controlled by different plant protection technologies, but postharvest decay of apples caused by the so called storage moulds cannot be completely avoided. Cold storage — alone, or in combination with other methods — is the main technology used to successfully prolong the shelf life of apples. The origin of the moulds causing the decay of apples during storage is not well understood. In this work the surface mycobiota of apple fruit grown in Soroksár, in the orchard of the Corvinus University of Budapest was investigated

A kinetical approach of texture changes of vegetables during blanching

The texture changes during the initial phase of blanching of potatoes, carrots and green peas at different blanching times (0–240 s) and temperatures (85 °C, 95 °C, 100 °C) were investigated. The breaking force (N) was determined by compression or Back extrusion tests with an Instron texture tester. Electronmicroscopic studies (SEM) were made to support the interpretation of the results.For each vegetable several sections of changes of the breaking force (lnF) were identified. For potatoes a three phase change of the breaking force by all temperatures (85 °C, 95 °C, 100 °C) was observed. In the first of the 3 different observed stages of potato blanching the breaking forces increased with time (0–40 s). In the second and third stage of the blanching process of potato a linear relationship was found between the logarithm of the breaking force and the blanching time. The second phase observed was faster (40–160 s) than the consecutive slower third phase (160–240 s).For green peas the change of the breaking force (lnF) can be described by two consecutive first rate reactions. A faster decreasing period between 0–25 s was followed by a slower decreasing one between 70–140 s. Between the first and second stage of the blanching process there was an initial lag period (25–70 s), which will not be described here. In the period after 140 s, there was not any change, this period is constant.For carrots the fastest change can be observed at 100 °C compared to the results at 85 and 95 °C. A three-phase curve was observed as well. An initial lag period (0–90 s) was followed by a faster (90–190 s) and a slower (190–240 s) decreasing one. In the second and third stage of the blanching process of carrots a linear relationship was found. For the changes of the breaking force (lnF) a kinetical approach was applied, reaction rate constants and apparent activation energies were calculated. The kinetical approach helps to compare and forecast changes at different process conditions

Hungarian Comparative Agendas Project (CAP)- Pártok, párthierarchia az Országgyűlésben

A Hungarian Comparative Agendas Project (CAP) az MTA TK Politikatudományi Intézetében működik, célja a magyar közpolitika dinamikájának feltárása a különböző közpolitikai és politikai napirendek kvantitatív társadalomtudományi eszközökkel történő vizsgálatával. Mindehhez az Egyesült Államokban Frank Baumgartner és Bryan Jones nevével fémjelzett Policy Agendas Project közpolitikai tartalomelemző kódkönyvét adaptálja hazai környezetben. A kutatás azt célozza, hogy konzisztens adatbázist hozzon létre a magyar közpolitikai folyamatok meghatározó aktorai – így a parlament, a média és a közvélemény szereplői – számára meghatározó ügyekről. A mérések megbízhatóságát az egyértelműen megszabott, koherens kódolási szabályok garantálják, amelyek révén a kormányzat prioritásainak változásai időben és közpolitikai területenként konzisztens módon nyomon követhetők. Az országgyűlési képviselettel rendelkező pártok adatbázis az országgyűlési képviselettel rendelkező pártokról nyújt tájékoztatást. Az adatok a Magyar Országgyűlés hivatalos oldaláról (http://parlament.hu/) származnak. A Párthierarchia az Országgyűlésben adatbázis a Magyar Országgyűlés frakcióinak elnökeiről és alelnökeiről nyújt tájékoztatást 1990-től kezdődően. A források a Magyar Országgyűlés (http://parlament.hu) hivatalos oldaláról származnak. Az adatbázisban szereplő legfontosabb változók az alábbiakra terjednek ki: a képviselő neve (name), párthovatartozása (party affiliation) és a frakció hierarchiájában betöltött pozíciója (party_hierarchy). isztens módon nyomon követhetők