Honesty
and Trust in the Light of Post-Socialist Transition
Report on Structure
The kind of collective work of reseach carried
out on this theme at Collegium Budapest constituted a specific combination of
what is termed a project in the research world and a focus group at Collegium
Budapest.
The
first, preparatory phase started in
the summer of 1999, when I asked Susan Rose-Ackerman (Yale Law School) to join
me in directing the project. We decided on the main lines of the project and
started to recruit participants. By the summer of 2001, a group of prospective
participants had been identified and a planning workshop convened in Budapest
with their participation. They were asked to submit earlier papers of theirs on
the subject matter, which were put on a newly created website, to serve as
background material for the planning workshop, but no new papers were called
for at that stage. The discussion at each session of the workshop centred
around one topic and lively exchanges of ideas developed. The participants
expressed great enthusiasm about participating in the project.
Already
in this early, preparatory phase, good use was made of the Internet, to
expedite communication among the group members by creating a project website
within the home page of Collegium Budapest. This was updated regularly as the
project advanced, especially the section “Work in Progress”.
In
planning further work, there seemed to be two main courses to choose from. One
alternative was to pick out some defined questions and then approach people who
would be capable of answering them. The other was to place emphasis on
selecting people and instigating them – within the general problem area – to
ask the question they wished to answer. We decided to take the latter course,
since it allows freedom of research initiative, although it was clear that
would cause difficulties in ensuring full coherence in resulting publications.
The
second, intensively interactive phase
of the project ensued in the first semester of the 2002–2003 academic year at
Collegium Budapest. This report summarizes the activities in that phase, which
has in practice ended.
1. There
were 16 fellows and visiting scholars who spent shorter or longer periods at
the Collegium. They were housed in the Wallenberg Guesthouse and took part in
the activities at the Collegium in the usual way. They held numerous
interesting and productive discussions in various set-ups. They consulted each
other singly and in smaller and larger groups, and read and commented on each
other’s papers.
2. There
were three workshops held at Collegium Budapest, where altogether 32 papers
were discussed. Each workshop lasted for one-and-a-half days. These sessions
were very intensive: participants were allowed 20–30 minutes to deliver their
papers, each of which was followed by a lively discourse of another 20–30
minutes.
Beside
the papers invited for discussion, 6 papers were also contributed on their
authors’ own initiative. Although these papers were not discussed at the
workshops, the authors were informally consulted and some of them took part in
the workshops.
3. The
papers contributed by the members of the group (fellows and visiting scholars)
were also discussed at a series of informal seminars, with the participation of
the members present at the time at the Collegium. These 90-minute sessions
allowed papers to be discussed more thoroughly than they could be during the
workshops.
4.
Some
of the fellows and visiting scholars gave lectures at various institutions
outside Collegium Budapest. These were well attended.
The
third, concluding phase of the
project is just starting. While drawing up their findings, participants plan to
make use of what they have heard and discovered at the workshops and on other
occasions in their own work. All the participants emphasize that the lively
interaction of recent months has been a great intellectual experience that will
serve as a major inspiration in their future work.
The
project website will be retained as a way of furthering the exchange of ideas
among group members.
The
findings will be made public in various ways. We plan to publish 20–25 of the
papers as a two-volume book. Negotiations with several prominent publishers are
in progress. The authors of the papers selected for the book have been asked to
submit the revised versions of their papers to the three editors (János Kornai,
Susan Rose-Ackerman and Bo Rothstein) by February. Other authors are being
encouraged to publish their papers in journals.
Many
of the participants are preparing to deliver lectures at various forums. Most
of them plan not only to talk about their own subjects, but to pass on
comprehensive ideas they have acquired as participants in the Honesty and Trust
project.
January 30, 2003
János Kornai