The Withering Away of a Communist State?

Hungary today is a land of possibilities, perils, and unpredictability. In the past year, the ruling (Communist) Hungarian Socialist Workers party (HSWP) reluctantly recognized that ineffective leadership and lack of legitimacy had rendered it increasingly incapable of coping with the country’s mounting problems. Consequently, it allowed its state power to begin to wither away. Censorship is gone and the first free elections since the 1940s are planned for next year. What the party yiel...