The time has come to say it out loud: it is necessary to change the spatial structure of the Hungarian economy. The predominantly Budapest-centered policy of the past 150 years is not enough to economically reach or surpass Western Europe, or the successful countries of East Asia and the Middle East.
In fact, without changing the spatial layout, we cannot keep pace with the economic development of our region. The main reason for this is: due to Budapest’s internal, insurmountable constraints and the megatrends of the past decade, the Hungarian capital has shrunk on the global scale while, locally, remaining too large. In other words, while it is too small for the world, it is too big for us.
In the search for a successful and, inherently, sustainable Hungarian model of development, we are in need of a fundamentally different spatial structure.
That, as well as other necessary factors such as: political predictability, equilibrium growth, a balanced central bank budget, EU funds, middle-class expansion, focus on developing manufacturing, competitive higher education, innovative SME sector and renewed healthcare.
Let’s take a look at some starting points for this:
Budapest served as a motor for the first industrialization
Between 1873 and 1918, Budapest successfully replaced the deficient Hungarian spatial structure that had been in existence for hundreds of years. Budapest managed to accelerate industrialization, infrastructure development, civilization and modernization for the Hungarian half of the Monarchy as its engine. This was achieved by a radial, railway-based configuration directly or indirectly connecting all the settlements of the Carpathian Basin to the core, Budapest.
This was a highly centralized layout that at the time, effectively balanced out the decentralized network of large cities in the Carpathian Basin. Košice, Bratislava, Rijeka, Novi Sad, Subotica, Timișoara, Cluj-Napoca, Brasov, Alba Iulia, Odorheiu Secuiesc, Oradea, Berehove, and Mukachevo formed a network of cities that complemented Budapest; this network even worked to balance out the centralized nature. However, this network of cities was destroyed by the Treaty of Trianon. After 1920, Hungarian economic development was deprived of its former network of infrastructure, raw materials, markets, labor force, university, and secondary school knowledge along with the vast majority of factories. The spatial structure of Hungarian development established in 1867 ceased to exist in 1920 as the unified economic space of the Carpathian Basin was broken apart.