ABSTRACTS

Zsuzsa Ferge
Social Structure and Inequalities in Old Socialism and New Capitalism in Hungary

The structure of state socialism was stifled by totalitarian power yet inequalities persisted. The stratification by the 'character of the work done', a combination of power/authority, knowledge, working conditions etc. was veiled by the official ideology about the near-equality of two 'classes' and about the abolition of poverty. Social inequalities were studied in the 1960s and 1980s in these terms, showing a structure that was shifting upwards in two decades, where social distances decreased in some respects, but where the reproduction of inequalities already started, and the lack of freedom was increasingly keenly felt. The structure of new capitalism seems to be based on capital ownership and the position on the labor market, though the old professional categories still have some validity. The new structure produces much larger inequalities and new forms of poverty. The threat of lasting poverty and exclusion looms large.


Júlia Szalai
Social Outcasts in 21st Century Hungary

Part One of this study summarizes the general view of poverty since the political regime changed, and the practical consequences. The previous regime's denial and hiding of the poverty issue has had several effects. One is that poverty is considered foreign to the system, simply the fallout of economic crisis, and therefore transitional. The belief in its transitional nature has covered up the difference between mass impoverishment and lasting poverty, which always existed, is becoming increasingly serious, and can easily escalate into permanent exclusion. The need to dismantle an overcentralized state is a major reason why the poverty problem has not been understood. Public expenditure can be reduced with little resistance if only those 'who really need it' are assisted. This policy suggests that poverty is 'accidental' and individualized, and that the victims can be blamed. Another, more practical consequence has been the segregating effect of separate institutional poverty management. Institutional reforms have created a huge network of decentralized institutions, which have cut off poverty from other social problems. The social nature of poverty has thus been hidden under the guise of individualization as well as by transferring management to small communities. At the same time, these measures have anchored lines of demarcation between mainstream society and the poor. Part Two of the study focuses on the internal stratification of the poor. The result of impoverishment is that there is now a mass of income-poor people (retirees, low-income families, parents of young children), whose problems are 'only' ones of distribution. Since their bonds to mainstream society have not been fatally injured, their situation could be resolved with money and economic expansion. The other group of the poor are the long-standing, extremely poor. They are in a consolidated state of poverty from which escape is almost impossible. As individuals, people without families, or whose families are in a state of collapse, are in particularly dire situations. Others, who are unskilled and come from less competitive strata and have been driven off the increasingly limited labor market to lock themselves into the underground economy, are in a similarly ominous position. There are also two groups that are collectively poor. It is almost impossible to break out of tiny pockets of isolated settlements and of regions particularly depressed by mass unemployment. The other collective is made up of the victims of the dead-end of forced assimilation, primarily the Roma poor which make up 60-80 per cent of the Gypsy population.


Éva Havasi
Poverty and Exclusion in Contemporary Hungary

The paper analyses multi-dimensional poverty also called exclusion with the help of a large national sample. The paper shows the long-term trends covering three decades of increasing income inequalities, the decade-long decrease and slow upturn of personal incomes, and the changes in various poverty measures. The second part offers an approach to multiple deprivation or exclusion as the simultaneous presence of various aspects of objective and subjective poverty, and gives an account of the situation of the families that may be considered excluded. The third part analyses the dynamics of poverty as a lifetime and as a shorter-term experience, and also the future expectations of the poor. The conclusion is that there is a small and not very visible group split off the 'first society' that, without public help is condemned to lasting exclusion.


János Ladányi-Iván Szelényi
The Nature and Social Determinants of Roma Poverty - A Cross-National Comparison

This paper is based on data from the survey "Poverty, ethnicity and gender in transitional societies" carried on in 2000 in six Central and East European countries. The paper focuses on three of them (Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania) with a significant Roma minority. The first part presents the recollection of Roma and non-Roma about their poverty experience before 1989, and the second part reviews evidence about the impact of the changes. The situation of the majority of both groups seems to have deteriorated but decrease is much stronger in case of the Roma. The third section offers an overview of cross-national and inter-ethnic differences in living standards in the year 2000. In a cross-national perspective both groups seem to fare better in Hungary than in the other two "neo-patrimonial" systems, but the difference between the Roma and the non-Roma is everywhere significant. The fourth section assesses how various new capitalist countries deal with the challenge of new poverty and under what circumstances - if ever - can one meaningfully apply the concept of the "underclass".


Ágnes Darvas-Katalin Tausz
The Poverty of Children

We investigated the poverty of children by means of a sample covering only the poorest third of the population. Our starting point was that children have special needs that differ from those of adults, and that the degree of satisfaction of those needs determines to a large extent the quality of their life and their future life chances. The results show that within the poor population the children in the most disadvantaged situation are those who live in Budapest, who live in families without an active earner, and the children of the Roma. The difference between the poverty of children living in the capital and in villages is significant despite the fact that on the national level the income level of the capital is higher than in the villages. Two factors that were expected to be significantly influencing need satisfaction, namely the age of the children and the number of children in the household do not seem to differentiate significantly the poor population. The majority of poor households with children get some social benefits but the level of the benefits is too low to significantly improve the situation.


Ágnes Simonyi
Rural and Urban Families on the Periphery of Society

The paper analyses the experiences of case studies with 120 families that belong to those who were hit hardest by the economic and social transition. The steadily disadvantageous situation of these families can be traced back to the labor market processes. Despite decreasing unemployment figures and several labor market programs there are still large groups - young people, women with small children, elderly middle-aged persons, the Roma - who can hardly reintegrate into permanent employment. For these people no good choices exist between low wages of available and often uncertain, formal and official jobs and between the irregular incomes from casual, precarious work supplemented with social allowances and benefits. The mobilization of all family resources, including often the work of children, may help to overcome daily problems of subsistence, however their family system is often in danger. Market instability, the loss of continuous income, health problems, tensions and emotional crisis situations often jeopardize the daily conduct of life, housing conditions and the future of children. In the lack of other subsistence strategies and family models this instability is going to be reproduced by the younger generations.


Ödön Éltető-Éva Havasi
Impact of Choice of Equivalence Scale on Income Inequality and on Poverty Measures

The authors present the theoretical bases and the results of an equivalence scale developed recently in the HSO. The paper shows how the income distribution and various measures of income inequality are affected by the choice of the equivalence scale. The authors investigate the impact of this choice on the phenomenon of poverty. According to the authors' opinion no global, generally applicable equivalence scale can be constructed because an appropriate scale is largely determined by the country's special circumstances. In order to change the present Hungarian practice they suggest not only professional, but also political consensus, because the choice of the equivalence scale can be advantageous for certain social groups, while disadvantageous for others.


Zsolt Spéder
Poverty in Hungary - Using the Concept of the Proportional Deprivation Index

The author summarizes the results of employing a new method, the proportional deprivation index (PDI). The novelty of the approach is the weighting of deficits in specific dimensions. The PDI takes two things into account: the lack of living condition components owing to scarcity of resources and the importance people attach to the lack of these items. According to the author's opinion the central components of this new concept may play a part in the empirical analysis of the problem of exclusion vs. integration. On the basis of the comparison of deprivation and income poverty and the analysis of these according to various socio-economic factors the author concludes that the investigations based on disparate concepts have led to very similar results. However, certain dissimilarities are also observable, thus the simultaneous application of the concepts may/will provide a more differentiated and nuanced understanding of poverty and disadvantage.