Discussion Papers 1993.
Spatial Research and the Social-Political Changes 97-102. p.
CRISIS SIGNS OF THE HUNGARIAN SMALL TOWNS
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CRISIS SIGNS OF THE HUNGARIAN SMALL TOWNS
BALINT CSATARI
INTRODUCTION
Our research team has been dealing with the comprehensive study of the Hungarian
small town network within the scope of a national project.
At the start of our studies it could be perceived that the settlement network, and within
it the small towns, would be seriously affected by the deepening economic and social
crisis of socialism. It can be generally stated that considering the whole process of urban-
ization the growth of the large cities decreased, with the decrease in investments the econ-
omic progress stagnated, the migration possibility of the rural population narrowed. The
central political power became weaker and in the village-town relation the importance of
small towns grew. Their population growth became faster than the average of the towns
and their number according to their legal codification, though the professional and scien-
tific arguments are missing, grew very fast. In January, 1989, 41 settlements were estab-
lished as towns in Hungary asked by their own councils. In this way the number of Hun-
garian small towns, having fewer inhabitants than 30,000, increased by one third: from 84
to 125.
The following points will be highlighted in the present report:
— the definition of this settlement group;
their changing position in the Hungarian urbanization process;
some features of their integration into the settlement network;
—
and their types.
AN ATTEMPT TO DEFINE THE SMALL TOWNS
The international technical literature from Christaller to Davis uses several definitions,
first of all according to size and function. They are quite different in terms of historical
settlement progress features. The small town, according to society, is an ideal settlement
type, which can provide a favourable and well-arranged place for human life, having
urban social organizations. With their multi-sector economy and institutional network,
they have more comfortable life conditions than villages. Small towns have, without any
doubt, a specific gracefulness or charm, settlement character and intelligentsia organized
in social groups. Observing from the view of settlement geography, their main character
Csatári, Bálint: Crisis Signs of the Hungarian Small Towns.
In: Spatial Research and the Social-Political Changes. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies,
1993. 97–102. p. Discussion Papers. Special
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BALINT CSATARI
is that they are situated at a central place. They are on the first level of town hierarchy
attracting first of all the rural areas providing them with certain goods and services.
Of course, architecture, sociology or even administrative law may have their own
small town definitions widening and colouring the above mentioned. In this way, instead
of purely theoretical definition, it is better to say: a small town is a settlement judged as
such by its inhabitants and its regional (functional) role accepted by the surrounding rural
society.
The settlement geographer's task is to reveal, analyze and show these 'factors', to
follow their changes and understand that small towns are really special elements in the
settlement network. Having a distinguished situation, they offer different ways to solve
the crisis of a given area.
Their factors to be investigated are as follows:
population and society of small towns;
local economy and its relation system (particular and co-operative re-
lations);
the most important elements of the small town institutional network
(secondary school, hospital, court of justice, administrative offices);
marketing and service centre functions;
the small town as intellectual leading and organizing centre.
•
In my opinion all the five factors are equally important to judge small towns. Their
harmony can be proved by their inner progress and can moderate the regional dispersities
making proportional the distribution of the town goods over the whole settlement area.
THE POSITION OF HUNGARIAN SMALL TOWNS IN THE URBANIZATION
PROGRESS
The historical town progress entered into the modem urbanization process after the
Industrial Revolution has exact periods and cycles. The 'waves' characterizing this devel-
opment "reached" the small towns later or in a particular way, especially in Central Eu-
rope. The most important causes are:
— economic underdevelopment;
one-sided agrarian character;
lack of middle classes or rather late development of burgeois men-
tality;
the 20th century historical cataclysms and their consequences on town
and regional structure.
Observing the 20th century Hungarian town network, the River Danube is a sharp
border line. Western Hungarian small towns are far more developed, industrialized, and
have taken more on burgeois habits. The Great Plain, at the same time, is characterized by
agro-market towns, which have not any rural zone of attraction but large fields and a
Csatári, Bálint: Crisis Signs of the Hungarian Small Towns.
In: Spatial Research and the Social-Political Changes. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies,
1993. 97–102. p. Discussion Papers. Special
CRISIS SIGNS OF THE HUNGARIAN SMALL TOWNS
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system of scattered farms. However the so-called "peasant-burgeois" mentality developed
in these towns, too, bound on the private property of the field and resulted in several
changes (e.g. secondary school network) suggested by the profit of the market and pro-
gressing the agricultural activity.
Considering the decisive criteria in addition to the above mentioned two main groups,
there are small towns at the natural border of the mountain and plain regions, having first
of all marketing and transport centre functions and missing the features of the two main
groups.
After 1920, the 'centrally conducted' development of the Hungarian small towns be-
came typical. After the new borders had been cut across some counties, several small
towns became provisional county seats, and during the 1930s their institutions were being
built up quickly financed by central sources (county offices, hospitals, court of justice,
secondary schools etc.). Most of them were completely missing the other factors of town
development (economy, intellectuals, attraction zone etc.). But there were former county
seats having great traditions, which were degraded to small towns without any back-
ground. (Maybe the new border cut the town itself into two parts.) This "artificial urban-
ization wave" shows that the small towns had to run a forced course because their devel-
opment was decided first of all by outer and not inner forces.
This process became stronger after World War II mainly because of the administrative
reform: in 1950 the Soviet-type council system was introduced. The forced "socialist in-
dustrialization" created new (workers') small towns disrepairing others led mostly by rich
peasants and the new, provisional county seats established after World War I.
Both of these "artificial urbanization waves", investing significant sources into the
(chosen) towns, were exhausted by the end of the 1950s and the development of Hunga-
rian small towns has stagnated for twenty years. The new wave effects first of all the big
cities—the capital and the regional centres—and the county seats having a main role in
the distribution of the central funds. Between 1956-1978, only very rarely were any set-
tlements established as towns; the central funds were practically totally taken by the
county (political power) centres.
A new period of small towns begins at the end of the 1970s. It is a more comprehens-
ive urban process lasting even in our days. Its main feature is that the omnipotent, plan-di-
rected settlement network development model was uniformized, neglecting the local his-
torical, social and architectural tradition. It was not interested in the small towns' demand
for inner harmony. We can say this wave was started on a voluntary basis. Socialist decen-
tralized industrialization, centrally supported workers' flat building and institutional es-
tablishments were the first steps but the infrastructure, transport and telecommunication
system were hardly changed. There was only a minimal development of the small town
society, local community, publicity and achievement of burgeois mentality. The quality
conditions of the quantity progress were nearly completely missing.
Their development and urbanization are only illusive. Our small towns seem to be
only concentration centres: a lot of people have moved into them from the damaged sur-
rounding villages, although these towns could be reached in 15 minutes with a good traffic
network.
Compared to their earlier level, they are increasing too quickly. It is marked by a quan-
Csatári, Bálint: Crisis Signs of the Hungarian Small Towns.
In: Spatial Research and the Social-Political Changes. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies,
1993. 97–102. p. Discussion Papers. Special
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BALINT CSATARI
titative and not qualitative concentration of urbanization. The loss of inner harmony is
piled onto the growth of their regional attraction because they cannot satisfy the needs of
the increasing number of inhabitants. For this reason the small towns are under-urbanized
in view of their economy, society and regional role. In this way they are hardly suitable for
organizing an up-to-date settlement development based on a modern market economy.
THE POSITION OF SMALL TOWNS IN THE SETTLEMENT SYSTEM
Some characteristic data: The number of small towns under 30,000 has become four
times as that since 1960. In 1990 there are 125 small towns in Hungary, which altogether
make up 75% of legal towns but only 16% of the Hungarian population live in them and
only 26% of town folks.
Looking up the data from the first national census (1870), it can easily be seen that the
population increase in small towns was nearly the same as that of the whole country.
It shows that the rate of people living in small towns has changed only +0.2% since
1870. It proves that there has not been a bigger small town urbanization wave for 120
years. Respectively, the changes have equalized each other in the observed 125 settle-
ments. The important role of the small towns is significantly proven by the fact that at
present 1879 villages and joint-villages are connected to them, containing 68,425 km 2,
more than two thirds of Hungary.
The key question of their settlement network position is whether the rural population
of their region recognizes them as towns, and whether they are able to fulfil central func-
tions: to collect and affect the best assets of a small region.
I think most of the small town crisis signs can be found in this respect.
If a town is regarded as the centre of the economic, technical and social spheres in the
settlement network, we can go on to observe them in detail as mentioned above in the title.
Their economy, first of all their industry, is mostly made up of auxiliary firms. Since
1982, the number of employees has been decreasing both in the state and co-operative
sector of industry. It can be expected that after the change of their inner structure a great
many of the firms will not be able to exist independently and their bankruptcy will cause
serious unemployment not only in small towns but among the people of surrounding vil-
lages as well, who travel to work in the towns every day.
The backwardness of technical infrastructure seems to be just as typical of this settle-
ment group as that of the whole country. The main problem is that small towns cannot
ensure suitable conditions for modern firms. Out of the 125 settlements there are only 59
having direct telephone connections. Their transport system is also in a critical condition,
though there is no village from where a legal town cannot be reached within 30 minutes.
But the quality of these towns is very different. This is exactly the main problem of their
integration into the settlement system: the dissension of the small towns' region-supplying
function.
During our research there were four institutions and functions whose existence or ab-
sence proved to be decisive: the secondary school, a hospital or at least polyclinic, a de-
partment store as well as a shop network better than the village average, and strangely
Csatári, Bálint: Crisis Signs of the Hungarian Small Towns.
In: Spatial Research and the Social-Political Changes. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies,
1993. 97–102. p. Discussion Papers. Special
CRISIS SIGNS OF THE HUNGARIAN SMALL TOWNS
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enough the court of justice, a prosecutor's office or at least a notary public and a police
station.
I would like to show some correct data on our investigations in Szolnok and Bacs-Kis-
kun counties. From Baja to Tiszafiired it can easily be seen that rural people often visit
small towns; it belongs to their everyday life. Of course, there is no time to speak about it
in detail but some characteristic data will be provided. There are big differences in the
village-town connections. E.g. Szolnok, Kecskemet and Baja have got over 1,000 rela-
tions in the field under our survey (administration, shopping, education, public health
care, basic services, transport). Medium-size towns (e.g. Kiskunhalas or Jaszberiny) have
got 700 and the small towns between 200-500, depending on the development of their
region-supplying function. Bacsalmas and Kunhegyes, for example, can be characterized
by 204 such relations. Kalocsa, the traditional small town on the Great Plain, has 508 and
it can be explained with the hospital and the secondary school town function.
If these relations are compared with the different rates of the supplied population con-
cerning the features of connections, the picture is far more tinged. Medium-size towns are
visited by 35,000 to 70,000 rural people, small towns with developed functions by 20,000
to 30,000, while with the settlements recently established as small towns 10,000 to 15,000
rural people have regular relations. It can be found out from the data that retail trading and
services are the most important; they contain 40 to 45% of the relations investigated. The
smaller and less developed a small town is, the higher this rate is ; reaching up to 50 to
60%. They cannot provide any other things or services, so it is not worth visiting them for
other reasons. The financial condition of small towns is hard, moreover critical, just con-
sidering the role of their region-supplying function which is so important for rural
citizens.
To sum it up, the integration of Hungarian small towns into the settlement network is
rather imperfect. It can be said to be proper only by looking at the map. They have a hardly
any role in the regional and settlement development policy because the old concept does
not work any more and there is not a new one yet.
TYPES
To judge the role of small towns during recent economic and social changes, a cluster-
analysis was carried out investigating their population, economy and infrastructure with
revealing data. There are six main groups expressing on different levels the above men-
tioned inner and outer attraction zone harmony:
(1)
The first group consists of the traditional (or historical) small towns
found mainly in Transdanubia and at the fort of the North Hungarian
Mid-Mountains. They have a developed institutional network.
(2)
The small towns of the Great Hungarian Plain (former agro-market
towns) can be divided into two further groups. Those retaining their ag-
rarian character can hardly integrate into the settlement network, while
Csatári, Bálint: Crisis Signs of the Hungarian Small Towns.
In: Spatial Research and the Social-Political Changes. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies,
1993. 97–102. p. Discussion Papers. Special
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BALINT CSATARI
to the other group belong settlements with new and modern industry,
and tourist centres.
(3)
The third characteristic type is the so-called socialist small towns with
well-developed infrastructure, underdeveloped social structure and a
modern attraction zone.
(4)
There is a regional (functional) type, the satellite small towns in the
agglomeration of Budapest.
(5)
Settlements having become known for their planned and conscious
town development form the fifth type. They can be divided into a more
developed and a marginal sub-group.
SUMMARY
The situation in small towns reflects their crisis, too. It results not only from the cen-
tralized socialist social-economic model of the last forty years but also from the late re-
gional and economic development of the whole area compared to developed regions.
In order to undergo a real and organic urbanization and fulfil their expected role, small
towns need a complete, social-political-economical, systemic change. They have fewer
possibilities, so their future fate depends on whether their many-sided importance is rec-
ognized by the whole society.