Third, the small size and closeness to clients of non-profit organizations helps to bring pluralism to service delivery. The Advocacy Role Despite high expectations over the development of civil society, non-profit organizations have only limited voice in Hungarian social policy making. Two factors limit the advocacy role of the non-profit sector in Hungary. First, the small weight of the sector in service delivery means that non-profit organizations have little power and, correspondingly, limited voice in policy development and implementation. Second, the institutional structure of politics and policy making magnifies the small weight of the sector.
Government remains the dominant institution in society and is highly centralized.
Access to state power depends upon informal ties to the ministerial bureaucracy and political parties. Most non-profit organizations have not developed these informal ties. There are exceptions where historical ties and organizational weight provide access to government for non-profit organizations. The Red Cross and the large associations representing client populations have a history dating back to the previous regime. Along with the Knights of Malta, which received backing from the conservative government of the early 1990s, these select non-profit organizations gain a disproportionate amount of support from the state budget.