Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.3935/rsp.v13i3.644
Poverty and the Traps of Postcommunist Welfare Reforms in Hungary: The New Challenges of EU-Accession
Julia Szalai
; Institute of Sociology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Abstract
During the transition and accession process in Hungary the questions of the fairness and efficiency of the welfare arrangements came to the forefront of public discussions and political contestation. The key questions concerned the type of welfare state arising on the ruins of the old state-socialist regime. The author investigates whether new welfare state resembles any of the “three worlds of welfare capitalism”, what is the role of the EU in their formation, and whether differences are merely a matter of the level of economic development or deep-rooted systemic causes and policies. The first part of the paper outlines competing visions on the transformation of the socialist state and it is followed by the presentation of ideological and political arguments standing behind the implemented measures in the field of social policy and the wider role of these measures in overall economic transformation. The author argues that the consequences of these measures in social policy, most notably increased poverty, though often considered as transitory, proved to be more permanent. Also, economic recovery has not brought the improvement of social services and local welfare assistance as expected. The second part of the paper offers a critical review of causes that brought about such a contrast between the declared goals and the actual results of the reform. The author argues that, contrary to the initial expectations of increased efficiency, batter targeting, and more social justice, the combined steps of funding cuts and decentralization of decisions failed to decrease poverty, while at the same time increased stigmatizing of recipients. The author concludes that Hungary's recent developments point toward the crystallization of a distinguishable fourth type of the welfare state developing more or less independently from the influence of supranational welfare arrangements of the EU.
Keywords
Welfare state; post-socialist welfare policy; poverty; ethnicity; racial/ethnic conflict
Hrčak ID:
30294
URI
Publication date:
4.12.2006.
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