The Social Composition of the Czechoslovak and Hungarian Communist Parties in the 1980s

This article examines the social composition of party membership in Hungary and the former Czechoslovakia during the mid-1980s. The study makes a distinction in party membership — between party rank-and-file member and party functionary — to elucidate the relative importance of factors in recruitment and promotion. The social compositions of the two Communist parties reveal that despite the rhetoric of egalitarianism, gender inequality in political participation was systematic and common in both countries. However, intercohort differences suggest that male domination in the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSČ) might have been increasing whereas the opposite seems to have been true for the Hungarian Communist Party (MSzMP). Although social origins had minor importance in membership for both parties, it does not mean that educational attainment became the de facto factor in determining party membership. In Hungary the effects of education, particularly university degrees, were significant in party membership. The lack of changes in the coefficients for university education across age cohorts further suggests that the MSzMP has always favored university graduates. In contrast, the role of education was found to be less obvious in Czechoslovakia for the entire sample and age cohorts.