Transylvanian Refugees in Hungary and the Emergence of Policy Networks to Cope with Crisis

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Abstract
This paper analyses the phenomenon of the immigration of Transylvanian refugees in contemporary Hungary. After describing the main characteristics of the Transylvanian refugees and briefly the process of their immigration, the paper explains why this immigration posed a severe policy-making challenge for Hungarian organizations and especially for the state authorities. In the following section the structure and the operation of the refugee policy networks is examined, focussing on the interorganizational networks and the role this structure played in coping with the formulation of policy for this hitherto unfamiliar political phenomenon. This policy network is hypothesized as a dualistic one consisting of a ‘mainframe sector’ and a ‘grassroots sector’ with independent, small and very active units. Finally, I analyse the main features of three ideal types of governance structures and offer an explanation of why the state chose the committee-type structure as the organizational reaction to the crisis, instead of the orthodox historical solutions of state socialism such as implementing a task force group or establishing a new bureaucracy.

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