The Transition from Welfare to Workfare in Times of Crisis

Many of the serious deficiencies in the Hungarian welfare state pre-date the 2010 political changes and a pronounced anti-poverty policy turn was evidently already on its way in 2008, especially concerning income protection for the long-term unemployed. As if this were not enough, according to the OECD, among the thirty-two OECD member states, Hungary and Greece were the only states where real public social spending had decreased since the onset of the economic crisis. More precisely, Hungary’s social policy answer to the crisis included the introduction of workfare, the diminishment of the second pillar pension, the abolishment of early pensions, the activation of family policy, and the encouragement of citizens’ self-support attitude. Moreover, in 2010 a two-thirds majority in parliament gave the government the possibility to enact fundamental changes to Hungary’s Constitution and legislation as a whole. Confronted with the experience of non-democratic regimes and the individual vision of fundamental rights, after the transition, the Fundamental Law indicates a shift of emphasis from state obligations towards individual citizens to citizens’ obligations towards the community.