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Hungary Social Relations in the 1980s
In the 1980s, society was complex and highly
differentiated.
Social scientists agreed that the traditional
Marxist-Leninist
description of the workers, peasants, and intellectuals
all
cooperating to build socialism did not accurately depict
modern
society. They actively sought new categories to account
for the
great diversity of life-styles and income sources but as
of the
late 1980s had not reached a consensus concerning
modifications
in traditional theories.
Most sociologists spoke of the existence of three major
strata in society: white-collar workers engaged in mental
labor;
manual laborers; and peasants. The white-collar category
comprised everyone not involved in physical labor--party
and
government leaders, intellectuals, professionals and
teachers,
collective farm managers, artists, business persons,
traders,
shop owners and specialists such as building contractors.
This
category constituted 30.3 percent of active earners in
1987, with
14.5 percent classified as professionals. The manual labor
category encompassed 61.4 percent of the work force and
included
skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled blue-collar workers of
all
ranks and degrees of training and prosperity. The
peasantry
working on both cooperative and state farms made up 8.3
percent
of earners. About 4.6 percent of the work force were also
"smallscale producers" of various types.
A survey taken in 1981 revealed the surprisingly
widespread
nature of small-scale agricultural production among
virtually all
social categories and occupations; 62.7 percent of active
earners
lived in households that cultivated at least small gardens
of
fruit trees or vegetables. A smaller but still substantial
number
of active earners were involved in animal husbandry
(see Agricultural Organization
, ch. 3). Sociologists were
uncertain
about whether or not this phenomenon was a temporary phase
in
industrial development or a new category of agricultural
worker.
Data as of September 1989
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