Heft36 1 - SFB 580 - Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena

SZALMA IVETT / SZEL BERNADETT
INTRODUCTION
8
ANALYSIS OF THE HUNGARIAN LABOR
MARKET BY DELIBERATIVE METHODS
Szalma Ivett and Szél Bernadett
European welfare states are under
increasing pressure from a number
of directions. Population ageing
and shifts in family patterns increase needs,
while the pressures of globalization on national
competitiveness restrict the capacity to
finance expansive welfare policies. In comparison
to other EU member states, Hungary is
characterized by a low employment rate, high
inactivity and moderate unemployment. Hungary
is a post-socialist country in which the
capitalist regime has been around for almost
20 years. As Dahrendorf (1994) elaborated
upon this, different spheres pass through the
transition phase with different speeds: while
the fundamentals and institutions of political
democracy can, in principle, be enforced
in six months, and transition to the market
economy can be carried out in six years, the
(re)emergence of the values and norms takes
a whole generation (60 years). It is a question
whether the heritage of the socialist regime is
still vivid in Hungary, in addition to whether
people expect the government to take care of
them in several aspects or whether they are
ready to take care of themselves and have
lower expectations of the state. It is another
question what other European, non-postsocialist
countries think about the role of the
state and what connections can be detected
between current expectations and a
nation’s past.
page 155
In Hungary several national studies
show that people hold a paternalistic
state ideal (Ferge, 1996; Utasi, 2008). This
phenomenon is said to have its roots in the
socialist regime, because the state ensured