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Hungary Social Composition of the Party
In mid-1988 the HSWP had about 817,000 members, or 10.3
percent of Hungary's adult population. Nominally the party
of the
working class, the HSWP actually was dominated by members
of the
intelligentsia. Men outnumbered women.
Since 1956 the proportion of workers and peasants in
the
party has declined. In 1962 industrial and agricultural
workers
made up 59 percent of the party. This figure dropped to 38
percent in 1970, and by 1985 it had declined to 31.9
percent. By
contrast, in 1975 members of the intelligentsia made up 40
percent of the membership, and by 1985 that figure had
risen to
42.4 percent.
Other statistics showed that members used their
membership to
raise their social status. In 1985 about 62 percent of
party
members originally were workers when they joined the party
and
8.9 percent originally were peasants. As a result of the
influence that party members held in society and the
favors that
the regime granted to party members, about 40 percent of
the
party membership was able to climb into the ranks of the
intelligentsia from the working class and the peasantry.
Thus,
children of workers and peasants used the party as a
vehicle of
upward mobility. Having joined the "political class,"
party
members, particularly full-time party officials, could
pass their
new status on to their children.
Statistics on the educational background of party
members
confirmed the dominance of the intelligentsia. In 1985
approximately 21 percent of party members had received
degrees
from a higher educational institution. The corresponding
figure
for the population as a whole was only 6.1 percent. In
1985 about
43.9 percent of the membership had a high school or
special
secondary school education. The figure for society as a
whole was
27.1 percent. Between 1975 and 1985, the proportion of
members
who had no more than a primary-school education declined
from
55.4 to 28.4 percent.
Historically women have formed a minority of the
party's
membership, although since the 1960s their percentage of
the
membership has risen. In 1966 women made up 22.9 percent
of the
HSWP, and by 1970 this figure had risen to 24.4 percent.
By mid1988 women made up approximately 32.1 percent of the
party. In
the late 1980s, however, women generally had not advanced
into
positions of power. For example, in the Central Committee
elected
in 1985, a mere 11 percent of the members were women. In
early
1989, only two women sat on the Politburo.
Data as of September 1989
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