IN THE WAKE OF THE WEST – THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC DEVE-LOPMENT IN VAS COUNTY

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to outline the economic development of Vas county, a varicolored area near to Austrian border, eager to close up to European living standard. The society of the county has been for centuries the transmitter of cultural and economic modernization sprung from West-Europe. It is true, even though the realignments of the twentieth century and the fall of the iron curtain widely brighted the burgeoning of the society. The central question is now, whether the economic processes of decades and centuries trends towards the patterns and levels of the European community as was widely thought after the „systemic change” two decades ago, or it is only false hope.

The study consist of two parts. The first section sets against the facts of upswing and decline in a geograghical-historical approach, the second part analyses the process of structural change of the last two decades and the actual economic structure of the county with an outlook to the prospects of the future. This text is also an instalment and rethinking of the major conclusions of the fundamental book, edited by Tamás Csapó in 1996. „Transition in Vas county”.