Who is undermining employee involvement in postsocialist supervisory boards? – National, European and international forces in the revision of Hungarian company law

This article explores regulatory developments with regard to employee representation in post-socialist corporate governance systems of Central Europe. It sets out to weigh the applicability of different theories on postsocialist industrial relations that focus on domestic, European and international forces. It pays special attention to the Hungarian case and studies regulatory developments in the early 2000s, with a focus on the third postsocialist Company Law of 2006. The article argues that the law reform undermines effective employee representation in postsocialist corporate governance systems. It concludes that these developments can only be adequately understood as the result of the interplay between various social forces at the national, European and international level.