After the fall of the socialist regime, the countries which were part of the block have had to construct institutions and create activities that didn’t exist before: this paper examines the ways in which the new welfare model is emerging in Hungary and its main features. It analyses the Hungarian social model in the light of social policy strategies pursued to confront the problems inherited from the past and those that have emerged following the process of transformation and the considerable involvement of society in the creation and management of services.only subscribers can see the full article

The issue of the family has taken on a new dimension in the political debate and in sociological research, given the impact its changing settings have produced on the welfare system and on its redefinition, as well as on labour market conditions. The article analyses the motiva-tions underlying this particular focus from the perspective of the social change involving relations within the family, those between family and labour market and lastly between family and welfare settings. The author assumes a critical sociological standpoint to avoid the risks of redundancy that the sociological analysis is exposed to when guided by policy requirements providing exclusively descriptive and exces-sively simplistic perspectives. However, it is now important to ask new questions and develop new theoretical and methodological approaches.only subscribers can see the full article

Poverty in post communist countries of Eastern Europe is the result not only of the transition to a market economy but also the rise to power of a new incapable and corrupt ruling class, the political priorities of governments and incoherent social policy measures. The most evident consequences of this transformation is a growth in poverty and income disparity. In fact there are great national and sub-regional differences. The situation is particularly critical in the Community of Independent States and in the south-eastern European countries, whereas it is less so in Central-Eastern Europe. Measures to reduce poverty have turned out to be inefficient and ineffective even if tailored to a definite target and means tested. Most reforms on welfare have been concentrated on pensions. With impending EU enlargement, increasingly greater influence must be yielded by the European social model or the strategy proposed by the World Bank. The central point seems to pivot on the matter of what political, social, institutional subject can initiate a broader reform of the welfare state.only subscribers can see the full article