Ideology and Practice: the Rhetoric of the Hungarian Socialist Workers? Party As Opposed to the Reality of the 1970?s and 1980?s

There have been numerous works born in Hungary about the socialist era since 1990, and yet there are still a few deficiencies in the field of social history. Life changed to an enormous extent in Hungary between the 1960?s and 1980?s; the society became a quasi-capitalist society by the end of the 80?s. However, the picture drawn by the socialist sociology differed from reality fundamentally. The majority of sociological studies provided a realistic picture of Hungary, while some authors included more or less ideological issues in their writings. The socialist ideology appeared much more powerfully in the university readers for teachers? colleges, which were crammed with dogmatic ideas ? even as late as the end of the 80?s, when the democratic transition was just a few months away. My work discovers the significant differences between the official socialist rhetoric regarding the ideal socialist way of life and the reality of people?s way of life in the 1970?s and 1980?s.