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copied directly, or adopted from – primarily Western – textbooks. In fact, many of the
pollsters had studied in the U.S.in the 1970s and 80s.

In 1988, a number of pollsters from the Hungarian Public Opinion Research Institute
(the former Mass Communication Research Centre) formed private polling firms and
began to publish their results. At the beginning of 1990, major multinational firms – for
example the US Gallup, the French Szonda Ipsos, and the German GFK – established
subsidiaries in Hungary (Gallup Hungary, Szonda Ipsos, Gfk Hungary) and employed
these experienced local pollsters. (Their professionalism is demonstrated by the fact
that, in spite of the extraordinarily complicated Hungarian electoral system, they
predicted very accurately the composition of the first Hungarian parliament.)

Public opinion polling undoubtedly strengthened the legitimacy of the newly
emerging political forces.The results of the polls informed the public of the existence of
the new political players and parties. Not surprisingly, the first polls showed that voters
were unfamiliar with the various parties and that a large proportion was confused.
Moreover, a large proportion rejected the multi-party system, an attitude that
diminished only slowly. Over time, the polls recorded shifts in opinion in favour of the
new political actors. The regular polls – conducted by independent companies – gave
an illusion of order in an often-chaotic political system.

But polls were often rejected amidst accusations of party bias. Each political group was
convinced that it alone represented the people and shared their goals. If this was not
reflected in the polls, the results were false. However, as the polls revealed, the party
programmes had nothing in common with the needs of society and of the public at
large. Instead, they defined the tasks, goals, and ideals of the individual intellectual
groups that had founded the parties. One other reason why polls were rejected lay in
the attitude of certain parties – especially the conservative and/or nationalist ones – to
polling. Public opinion polls were believed to be inappropriate in more traditional
societies, characterised by the kinds of close-knit bonds that conservative political
factions wished to strengthen in Hungary. Political Transition and the Professionalisation of Political Communication

Nonetheless, over the last 15 years, the role of the public opinion research firms has
changed considerably – although their importance has not diminished – and most can
now be clearly distinguished by their political affiliations. The major parties, especially
those that had been ruling parties at some point, were able to build stable relationships
with certain public opinion research companies through governmental commissions.
Overall these relationships remained even when the parties were no longer in
government as ruling parties. Szonda Ipsos, for example, is linked to the Socialist Party,
Gallup Hungary and Tarki to the right-wing coalition led by the Young Democrats,
Median to the (liberal) Alliance of Free Democrats. These relationships are confidential
and the companies receive political market research commissions on which strategic
decisions of the parties can be based. The political affiliation of other public or market 165