PARLIAMENTS AS POLICY-MAKING BODIES IN EAST-CENTRAL-EUROPE - THE CASEOF HUNGARY

The parliaments of East Central Europe (ECE) have been the central sit es of systemic change and have been widely analyzed with respect to th eir roles and functions. It is time, however, to deepen this analysis and to deal with ECE parliaments as policy-making bodies. The period o f democratic institution-building in East Central Europe is more or le ss over, but modernization of new institutions has just begun. This ar ticle investigates policy-making in the First Hungarian Parliament (19 90-94) and also to some extent in the Second Parliament (1994-). Major aspects of policy-making have been studied in this investigation: the effectiveness and efficiency of Hungarian legislation, and the proble ms of implementation. The conclusion is that policy-making in the Hung arian parliament still has a lot of problems, but that a relatively qu ick political learning process and professionalization can be observed .