APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110037-3
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Communist Politics, with a Small Difference (C)
Along the banks of the Danube in Budapest stands a monumental structure suitable for the suzerains of a great empire. Built in for turn-of-the-century neo-Gothic style, this house of government is reminiscent in outward appearance to the parliament on the Thames. There the resemblance ends, for the Hungarian building houses bodies that in themselves enjoy little real power but rather are servile attendants of the ruling Communist party. Political theorists might wish to know that Parliament, a unicameral assembly elected very 4 years, is by constitutional writ the highest organ of state authority and as such is empowered to make laws, determine the national budget and economic plans, create or abolish ministries and define the scope of their activities, declare war, conclude peace, and grant amnesties. Political realists understand that, despite talk of "unleashing" the legislature, it remains a captive beast barely capable of clearing its own threat. A Presidential Council, also supplied with an impressive list of powers, supervises the day-to-day operations of the government when Parliament is not in session, which is all but 12 to 15 days a year. A Council of Ministers, in practice the dominant government body, is in effect a puppet cabinet whose members largely move to the tune played by counterpart officials of the party.
As is readily apparent, the power of the Communist party is absolute; its glory, however, is negligible. Even the most dedicated follower is hard put to make the story of Hungarian communism creditable. The Hungarian Communist Party was founded in November 1918, tasted power briefly in the Bela Kun dictatorship (March-July 1919), and then lapsed during the interwar era into a largely underground organization with limited support among industrial workers, the urban Jewish middle class, and intellectuals. Overmatched against strong conservative, Christian, and nationalist traditions as well as the police, the party receded into passivity by the time of World War II. Following the "liberation" by Soviet armies—a "glorious" event by Communist accounts but a national disaster according to most others, the populace was required to tolerate the Communists but showed little love for them. A friend of the Rus-
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110037-3
