This publication aims to evaluate the performance of the Hungarian state as a service provider. The issue of public services has entered the political agenda with a newfound rigour in the past two years: news surrounding the state of health care and educational institutions, the problems with public transport and the issues plaguing child protection. Hence, it is very timely to survey how Hungarians assess the state of public services, what type of changes they have observed during the years of Viktor Orbán’s governance, what their perception is of the key problems in the most vital public services, and the directions in which these could be reformed.

We review which public services Hungarians are pleased with and which they tend to be dissatisfied with. Subsequently, we analyze in detail what the most burning problems are in the three areas that are most often discussed in Hungarian public discourse, namely health care, education and transportation. We will further look at the commonly proposed policy solutions to the problems in these areas to gauge how much support each of these have. On the whole, the objective of our research is to shine a light on the areas where Hungarian expect more from the state, and to help lay the foundations and flesh out policy proposals that could improve public services in those areas where public demand is the greatest.

"Rate your state 2025" can be downloaded from here.

Key findings: 

- The highest quality public services, according to Hungarians: energy, disaster management and fire brigades, waste management.

- Among the public services, Hungarians had the worst assessments of health care and the state of roads.

- Hungarian society is divided when it comes to its assessment of child protection.

- The quality of public administration, the armed forces and energy services have improved the most over the past 15 years.

- In the eyes of Hungarians, healthcare, road conditions, public education and the quality of the social welfare system have deteriorated the most under the Orbán governments.

- Respondents were more likely to believe that a change in government would improve the quality of public services than to fear that it would lead to a deterioration. 

- The most serious problems in the education system, according to Hungarians: too few good teachers, the teaching staff is too old and the student workload is too high.

- The majority believe that the first higher education diploma should be tuition-free, that the mandatory minimum age of education should be raised back to 18 years and that it would be better if educational institutions were controlled by municipal governments rather than the state.

- The most serious problems in health care according to Hungarians: long waiting lists and the lack of qualified professionals.

- The most popular health care policy proposals: taxpayers should be able to use their social security contributions to pay private providers, more mobile screening centres should be available in poorer municipalities, and vaccinations should be free.

- Nearly every second Hungarian has already used private health services, and two-thirds of them have experienced an increase in their spending on private health services during the past year.

- The main problems in transportation: high petrol prices, the condition of roads and train delays. 

- There is a cross-party consensus that road upgrades, railway repairs, and the better coordination of rail and bus transportation are the three top priorities for development in the area of transportation.

- The most popular social policies concern measures that provide relief from the impact of the energy and housing crises.

"Rate your state 2025" can be downloaded from here.

Authors: András Bíró-Nagy - Tamás Csontos - Kristóf Molnár - Attila Varga 

The study was realised with the support of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Budapest.