Érvek a kettős struktúra elmélete ellen
Arguments against the theory of dual structure

Summary/Abstract: The notion, labelled as dual structure came to define many of current social history and sociological approach of Hungarian society in the 20th century. The idea was first formulated by Ferenc Erdei in the 1940s, and became known in the 1970s only. The starting point for Erdei was, as for anybody else also being concerned with these problems, that Hungary's society was badly integrated in its internal make-up. Erdei, however, went well beyond this by arguing that Hungarian society had split into two and the two structures were in total opposition to each other. One of the structures was called by him "historical-national", the other a "modern bourgeois" society. Each of the two coexisting structures constituted a whole in itself, with elite, a middle class, and a lower class. The author in present study makes an attempt to prove that Erdei's contrivance devoids of any firmly rooted empirical evidence, and derives only from István Hajnal's historical sociology. Hajnal, an important Hungarian historian in the interwar period held the view that two fundamental social forces were responsible at every epoch for the dynamics of historical development: the habitual (customary) and the racional (reasonable) principle. Erdei in describing the stratification found in his own age merely applies this theory to the contemporary Hungarian society. Seeing the obvious weaknesses of Hajnal's conceptual apparatus in adequately explaining the 20th century development of Hungarian society, Erdei's procedure may easily be challenged. The best way of invalidating his highly popular dual structure theory is what Karl Popper falsification theory provides us. This demands not to verify, but more rather to falsify a theory by bringing out more and more empirical evidences which do not support the model. The author makes his best to do this in discussing the most diverse issues of Hungary's social history in the 20th century.

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