The cities and especially the capitals are to be distinguished from the other regions of the country not only by the much higher number of the collective and individual enterprises, but also by the great variety of these enterprises. Thus, we can find examples for all kinds of enterprises, but within this variety it can be observed that the enterprises connected with modernization and the very infrastructure of a market economy, with an information economy and innovation are predominant.
The situation seems to be consistent with major international trends; the most influential intellectual and economic centers are at the same time the centers of the most modern types of economic activities; it is in fact from here that they spread to remote regions. Of course, in Hungary, under the conditions of decades-long backwardness, all this has manifested itself with due modification of proportions. In this wave of organizational transactions the number of enterprises connected with technical economic modernization falls behind that of the enterprises in the field of domestic and external trade, a sphere that makes up the main sector of the
"consumer society" which has been promoted by the liberalization of imports.
According to our experience among private enterprises undertaken in the 80s in Budapest, those requiring more intellectual than financial capital are predominant. Their spread was promoted primarily by the efforts of the large state-owned enterprises and the administrative apparatus to modernize, securing by that stable markets for the enterprises. The most typical field of this system of relations was computer technology in the 80s. By today other branches, indispensable for the smooth operation of a market economy (and in this respect fulfilling the function of the infrastructure) have also gained ascendancy: enterprises in the field of tax, finan- cial, investment consulting, real estate trade, advertisement, marketing and of other economic and legal activities.
In the case of the former enterprises, in the field of computer technology we could witness the process under which the small organizations had acted not only as merely the market- partners and suppliers of the large enterprises but also the fact that they outgrew them. This challenge was met by the old large-scale enterprises themselves by organizational modernization,
"streaming" and thus the organizational structure of this activity became modernized in two aspects as well, moving toward more flexible and more open forms of small organizations.
At the beginning of the 80s the branches of computer technology were represented by some large, stateowned enterprises and by an institute that operated under the guidance of the Academy of Sciences. These enterprises were situated exclusively in the capital and they only had auxiliary firms in the countryside. The legal possibility of starting small private enterprises made
it possible t o form a large number of small private organizations primarily in this field. Young engineers left the large stateowned enterprises, or they established a kind of double existence, in order t o work in partnerships, economic working communities and small cooperatives. Some became the fastest growing enterprises of the 80s. In Hungary, the best business was not putting the intellectual products on the markets, but importing Western-made machines in components, reassembling them, and adapting them t o the domestic and Eastern requirements (and leasing them). In that period, the stateowned enterprises and the administrative apparatus of the state had yet eome money t o finance the equipment of transport, warehousing, payroll accounting, management with up-to-date computers and the small flexible enterprises could gain much in this market. After this only one further step had t o be taken t o supply the population with electronic and computer devices from the accumulated capital as well. They could begin t o work as the representatives of the large multinational h s , as co-owners of joint ventures or agents of commercial chains. Such enterprises are, for example, the Microsystem, Roliton, Kontrax which are among the largest companies. Microsystem is Sth, Rolitron is 12th, Kontrax is 17th among the largest Hungarian enterprises.
These enterprises, consisting of only a few engineers and disposing over practically no cap- ital, have by now become large ones that have succeeded not only in accumulating a large amount of capital and private wealth, but also in gaining economic positions that make rivals of foreign investors in the process of privatization. These dynamic new entrepreneurs, using both their expertise and capital and struggling t o hold their gains against the rivals in the cut- throat competition, have become accustomed t o finding their ways in rules and decrees, t o social maneouvres and have proved so successful in enforcing their interest as t o be able t o act fre- quently as "political decision-makersn having strong organizations of their own, parliamentary representation, and pursuing open and hidden lobbying.
Being researchers of the regions, we have t o clearly see that this group almost embodies those mechanism and driving forces that are behind the conspicuous renewal of the economic predominance of the capital. This trend can be explained not only by referring t o the favorable infrastructural conditions, the well-known concentration of intellectual capital, the role of the political career, but also intellectual center.
References
Nemes-Nagy, N., and Ruttkay, E. (1989)
"...
fdldrajza" (Geography of Second Economy), O T Terugaz- dascigi Inie'zei, Budapest, 1989 (in Hungarian).NemeeNagy, J., and Ruttkay, E. (1991) "Rural and Urban Forms of Private Enterprises in Hungary", Regional Policy and Local Governmenis, G. Horvkth (ed.), Centre for Regional Studies, Pdcs, pp.
163-173.
Klekner, P., (1990) "Vegyesvkllalatok Magyarorszkgi terjedben (Spread of Joint Ventures in Hungary), O T Terugazdascigi IniCzei Budapest. Manuscript (in Hungarian).
Ruttkay, I?. (1992) "Az informkci6gazdasiig ttCbeli terjedbdnek nChkny jellemzoje haz&nkbann (Some Characteristic of Spatial Diffusion of Information Economy in Hungary), Kuiaicis-azervbi Tdjkkoz- tai6, MTA 32, p. 3-4 (in Hungarian).
Wtegziidb eletkoriilm6nyek, dletmbd I1 (Statification, Living Conditions, Life Style 11), KSH, Budapest, 1983 (in Hungarian).