| Abstrakt: |
Many of the parties of Hungary's new democratic political system have their origins in factions either of the previous ruling party or of movements of opposition to the party-state. In these cases, factions gave birth to parties. Subsequently, however, the new parties have themselves been subject to factionalism, to internal conflicts and splits, but in all cases party unity has prevailed over factional conflict and dissent, while factions that have broken away to form independent parties have invariably been effectively marginalized. The article traces the history of factionalism within each of Hungary's six main parliamentary parties between the two parliamentary elections of 1990 and 1994, and in so doing demonstrates that factionalism has not served to undermine democratization. On the contrary, in certain cases factions have played integrative roles in maintaining party unity, and in other cases factions have been able to coexist healthily within larger parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
