Divide, Provide and Rule

An Integrative History of Poverty Policy, Social Reform, and Social Policy in Hungary under the Habsburg Monarchy

By Susan Zimmermann

Publication Year: 2012

A concise and comprehensive account of the transformation of social policy from traditional poor relief towards social insurance systems in a European state before World War One. Brings together the analysis of older, mostly local welfare policies with the history of social policy developed by the state and operated at a national level. Explores also the interaction of various layers of and actors in welfare policy, i.e. of poor relief, social reform policies and the unfolding welfare state over time, including often neglected elements of these policies such as e.g. protective policies at the work place, housing policy, child protection, and prostitution policies.

Published by: Central European University Press

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There are different types of acknowledgements and indebtedness I would like to list here. First of all, the Austrian Academy of Sciences must be mentioned for being so kind as to give permission to use as a basis for some sections of this book a study it commissioned back in―I believe― 2007. This study was published as Susan Zimmermann, “Armenund...

I. Introduction

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pp. 1-6

“Today I visited the Kereskényi family. During the winter time, they live in the ‘small house’; the need for heating is less there. I open wide the door and greet the dwellers with hearty goodwill. But the vapor billows out in thick white clouds and causes the words to catch in my throat. As...

II. Poverty Policy

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pp. 7-46

Policy on poverty in Hungary under the Habsburg Monarchy developed over the decades against a backdrop of major economic liberalization and hand in hand with a policy of promoting commercial and industrial development. In consequence, it encouraged willingness to undertake wage...

III. Social Reform and State Intervention (from1898 to 1914)

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pp. 47-68

At the latest by the 1890s it was increasingly felt that political action on what contemporaries called “the social question” in its many diverse branches and aspects could no longer be avoided. Hungarian society seemed in some regards to have gone off the rails; new social problems and...

IV. State Social Policy

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pp. 69-146

The growing commodification of employment relations in Hungary, like in many other European countries in the second half of the 19th century was increasingly accompanied by state efforts to regulate and organize these relations and to intervene into problems that arose for employers, employees...

V. Conclusion

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pp. 147-154

Confronted with the “critical economic circumstances” and the ensuing unemployment debacle of 1913, the capital city, Budapest, tried to take action as did other authorities outside the capital. It established a system of municipal unemployment benefits which foreshadowed a branch of social insurance entirely missing from Hungarian social policy as it was in other...

Bibliography

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pp. 155-168

Index

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pp. 169-172

Illustrations

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pp. 173-188

Back Cover

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E-ISBN-13: 9786155053207
Print-ISBN-13: 9786155053191

Page Count: 202
Publication Year: 2012