Comparatists used to point out the key role of education and educational policy in the social transformation (e.g. Inglehart 1997, Bray 2003, Arnove et al 2013), referring to ‘education’ as formalised and institutionalised learning. Analysing the role of learning  in the political change, ‘learning’ will be used in a wider meaning. It will mean all forms of learning from formal to non-formal and informal processes in the society.  Learning’ in its wider sense consists of four steps. (1) A socio-economic challenge that hits the society; (2) the social and political processes which are initiated by the challenge; (3) the quest for new information and knowledge necessary for meeting the challenge; (4) the lesson to learn from the problem solving process.

This model of ‘learning’ can be tested in the political transition of Hungary and Eastern Europe in the course of the 1989/90 political change. Studying the change in Hungary (first phase: 1988-1994, Kozma, Polonyi 2004), the four steps of the suggested model can easily be identified. (1) The fall of the Soviet empire challenged her satellite regimes in Eastern Europe, including Hungary. Symbolic events of the challenge were the fall of the Berlin wall (November 1989) and the cut of the ‘Iron Curtain’ at the Hungarian-Austrian border somewhat earlier (August 1989). (2) The process initiated by this challenge was collectively called as the ‘return to Europe’. (3) The knowledge and information, necessary for this ‘return to Europe’ came from three main sources: (a)  the experiences of the ‘reform communists’; (b) the ideas of the ‘democratic opposition’ of the former (socialist) regime; and c) the convictions and remembrances of the conservatives. (4) According to the narratives today, the transition were led by the knowledge, information (and ideas) of the ‘democratic opposition’ a special mixture of the Western liberal and Eastern socialistic traditions (‘third way’). It led to the abolition of  the central controls of schools, the growing authority of the local governments in educational policy, the autonomy of institutions in school and higher education, the private provisions of education and the like.

This analysis sheds light of the key role of ‘learning’ in the political change; how it forms the dominant philosophies and policies of education. It also shows the role of changing ideas and building up collective knowledge for meeting the present challenges of the education and educational policies in Europe.