Some Thoughts About the Historical Preliminaries and Consequences of the Formation of Peripheries

Abstract

The essay, which also deals with universal historical correlations, introduces the historical preliminaries and the consequences of the formation of peripheries in Hungary. The author, by discussing the historical dimensions of the centre-periphery relations, gives an in-depth analysis of the characteristics of the inner peripheries (e.g. Bihar, Middle Tisza region, Szatmár, Cserehát, large areas of Somogy and Tolna counties etc.) and also of the outer (border region) peripheries. The author also explores, mostly using the example of the large region of the Great Hungarian Plain, the features of the backwardness, in some cases multiple deprivation. In the author's view, the history of the Great Hungarian Plain is actually the history of a belated development in a belated country: as regards the leve] of development, the larger part of East Hungary is semi-peripheral in character. The accession of Hungary to the European Union, however, can decrease the existing territorial differences on the whole, alleviate the crisis phenomena coming from the backward situation and promote the catching up of the peripheral regions. Today it seems certain that a combination of sustainable development and decline will be typical in the inner and extemal peripheries for a longer time, although the crisis will be less and less significant, confined to the levei of certain micro-regions. It remains an open question, however, how much the supports expected after the EU accession of Hungary will contribute to the fundamental transformation of the centre–periphery relations. These supports will nevertheless be crucial for the catching up of the Hungarian peripheries, because they will find it difficult or even impossible to get out of the long-teret crisis on their own.