Hungary: Toward Liberalization

In Eastern Europe, politics and economics have come to mingle like goulash and galuska (dumplings). The economic liberalization that is sweeping the area is difficult—and even dangerous—for Communist rulers to resist. Last week Hungary made a major move toward liberalization by appointing Jenö Fock, 51, a noted economist, to serve as the country's new Premier. Fock, who replaces Gyula Kállai, 57, is the author of Hungary's "New Economic Mechanism," which goes into effect next year. He is expected to steer a middle course between the conservatives, who want to keep the economy in the firm grip of the party planners, and those who advocate a major role for private initiative both in the factories and on the ailing kholkozes (collective farms).

Fock's accession was part of a shake-up in the Hungarian Cabinet that also saw the replacement of President István Dobi by Pál Losonczi, a farming expert who has served as Hungary's Minister of Agriculture since 1960. Both appointments reflect the desire of Party Boss János Kádár, the country's real ruler, to strengthen his own position. Kádár, who called back the Russian tanks during the 1956 uprising in Hungary, has shrewdly conciliated the voices of economic reform in recent years. He knows that in order to dampen opposition within his own party, he must placate the westward-looking economists, who lament the central decision making that has succeeded mostly in leaving Hungary in debt and its people clamoring for a better life.