Collegium Budapest, the first institute for advanced study in Eastern Europe, plays host to one or several “focus groups” every academic year. These special collaborative research formations offer the chance for a group of researchers in various disciplines to concentrate their attention on a common subject of their choice.The result is lively interdisciplinary collaboration. Members of the group spend shorter or longer periods at the Collegium. While there, they discuss their ideas at seminars with each other and interested members of the Hungarian academic community. The results of their research are made public at conferences organized by the Collegium for a wider professional public.

The research topic of the focus group for the 1997–98 academic year concerned the interaction between politics and economic policy in the period of the post-socialist transition. I had proposed that this subject be placed on the agenda and then acted, on behalf of Collegium Budapest, as the convenor for the focus group. So I think it is appropriate for me to give a brief and, to some extent, personal account of the events leading up to the group's formation.

I am not just an observer and analyst of the post-socialist transformation in Eastern Europe but an active participant in it. On several occasions, in books, studies, and lectures, I have taken a position on issues of short- and long-term economic policy during the transition. On each occasion I contributed as a social scientist: I have not tied myself with any political party and remain unaffiliated.