Leiden University Student Repository

Halász, Gergely (2024)

Tale of Two States: The Impact of Ideology on Crisis Response

Bachelor thesis | Politicologie (BSc)

Based on the comparison of Hungary and Poland during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, this study determines that the party ideology of the ruling party does not have a significant impact on financial crisis response. Based on results derived from the National Bank and IMF reports of both countries in 2008 and 2009. Despite having ideologically different parties in power the government responses are not particularly divergent. I demonstrate that any particular response to a crisis is impacted by several factors both internal and external. In Hungary the social democratically oriented government was pushed to abandon ideology in favour of dominant economic neoliberalism. While Poland stayed the course but also deviated from ideology slightly. Thereby demonstrating that ideology becomes secondary in times of financial difficulty, particularly when international institutions are involved.

Hungary

Poland

Crisis Response

Party Ideology

IMF

Central Bank

Author

Halász, Gergely

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

International Relations and Organizations

Supervisors

Sampson, M.

ECTS Credits

180

Language

en