On the Institutional Infrastructure of Glasnost: Centralization and Concentration of the Hungarian Press.

`Glasnost Hungarian style' forms part of a process of reform initiated from `above'. From `below', there has been a remarkable renaissance of civil society, with increasing numbers of people becoming actively involved in public and political life. At the same time, gathering social and economic crisis threatens to destabilize the country, while institutional structures inherited almost intact from the Stalinist period serve as a strait-jacket, precluding any meaningful and lasting change. This is particularly evident in the print media, a field which is strictly regulated and controlled. Licensing of newspapers and periodicals, allocation of newsprint, strict price controls, almost non-existent opportunities for the entry of new actors into the field, a high degree of press concentration in the hands of the power elite — all these characterize the situation in the Hungarian press. All of these factors are incompatible with movement towards a democratic and pluralistic socialist society, but change in these areas is predicated on the reform of political institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]