Economic reform in the People's Republic of Hungary (legal and economic issues)

Abstract

In the 1960s, there was an attempt to reform the management and planning system in socialist countries. In their article, the authors introduce readers to the “New Economic Mechanism”. Under this slogan, economic reform was introduced in the People's Republic of Hungary. The authors point to the comprehensiveness, universality, simultaneity and depth of the changes which seems a very bold move especially as it was not preceded by any smaller-scale experiments. Due to the broad scope of the regulation, the authors have focused on providing readers only with an overview of the reform by describing, inter alia, the manner and mode of preparation of the reform, the problems encountered during implementation, the methodological assumptions and the new economic policy of the People's Republic of Hungary. New methods of managing the national economy, changes in the structure of the organisation of the economic system, a new system of finance, planning, prices, investment and economic and financial control are also presented. In addition, issues relating to foreign trade and the wage and bonus system are also described.