IDEAS Insights Hungary's Social Enterprise Landscape | Page 3

Hungary’s transition to democracy in 1989 onwards meant the establishment of a capitalist
market economy and the emergence of a third sector, which has been increasingly
addressing social issues. Nonetheless, social enterprises are still rare: studies estimate their
number between 300 and 3000. Structural issues and an unfavourable environment remain
major obstacles to their growth, with the lack of a strong supporting culture due to an
underlying historical discontinuity. The country’s diverse historical experiences, ranging from
regional imperialism to totalitarian Communism – with their destructive agents in the past
two centuries –severely disrupted the country’s chance at prosperity and have consequently
constrained efforts at configuring the economy in favour of the improvement of society.
Fig. 1: The Danube River, 1963.
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