The Transformation of the Municipal Social Care System in Hungary – In the Light of the Provision of Home Care Services
Abstract
Municipalities play a significant role in the field of social care services. The basic social services are primarily provided by local governments. The Hungarian municipalities have strong social powers and duties, but their role is in a permanent transformation. The strongly decentralised system established in the early 1990s has since been centralised and the majority of specialised social services has been nationalised in the last decade. This has resulted in a new model; a mixed system having evolved after 2013. The provision of the specialised services has been mainly centralised, while the basic services have remained the responsibility of the municipal bodies. In this article, the impacts of this reform are analysed. The centralisation of the specialised services and the reforms of the financial support of municipal basic social services significantly transformed the former accessibility. The accessibility to these services depends on several factors: it depends on the central regulation of the entitlement rules, of the central funding of the municipal tasks and partly that of the economic power of the municipality. The central regulation and the central support of these services play a very important role in this system.
References
Citroni, G., Lippi, A. & Profetri, S. (2019) In the Shadow of Austerity: Italian Local Public Services and the Politics of Budget Cuts, In: Lippi, A. & Tsekos, T. N. (eds.) Local Public Services in Times of Austerity across Mediterrennean Europe. (Cham: Springer Nature & Pagrave Macmillan), pp. 115-140.
Esping-Andersen, G. (2002) Towards the Good Society, Once Again?, In: Esping-Andersen, G., Gallie, D., Hemerijck A. & Myles, J. (eds.) Why We Need a New Welfare State. (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 2-25.
ESPROSS (2018) European System of Integrated Social Protection Statistics, available at http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/submitViewTableAction.doc (December 21, 2018).
Fazekas, M. (1999) A szociális igazgatás, In: Ficzere, L. & Forgács, I. (eds.) Magyar közigazgatási jog. Különös rész európai uniós kitekintéssel. (Budapest: Osiris), pp. 181-209.
Gern, A. & Brüning, C. (2019) Deutsches Kommunalrecht. (Baden- Baden: Nomos)
Gevers, J., Geliseen, J., Arts, W. & Muffels, R. (2001) Popular support for health care in Europe – Review of the evidence of cross-national survey, In: Meulen, R. T., Arts, W. & Muffels, R. (eds.) Solidarity in Health and Social Care in Europe. (Dordrecht: Springer Science + Business Media), pp. 41-76.
Gyarmati, A. (2019) Ageing and care for the elderly in Hungary (Budapest: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung),available at https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/budapest/15482.pdf (March 3, 2020).
Harrington, M. H. & Hausauer, J. (2015) Long-term care for the elderly, In: Béland, D., Howard, C. & Morgan, K. J. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of U. S: Social Policy (Oxford: Oxfrod University Press), pp. 315-333.
Hill, M. & Irving, Z. M. (2009) Understanding Social Policy (Chichester: Wiley and Blackwell).
Hlebec, V. (2017) Family Care Experience in a Decentralized Social Home Care Context, Lex localis – Journal of Local Self-Government, 15(3), pp. 495-511.
Hoffman, I. (2012) Some Thoughts on the System of Tasks of the Local Autonomies Related to the Organisation of Personal Social Care, Lex localis - Journal of Local Self-Government, 10(4), pp. 323-340.
Hoffman, I. (2014) The Changes of the Roles of the Hungarian Counties: Towards a One and a Half Tier System?, Lex localis - Journal of Local Self-Government, 12(3), pp. 393-416.
Karpiuk, M. & Kostrubiec, J. (2017) Rechtsstatus der territorialen Selbstverwaltung in Polen. (Olsztyn: Uniwersytet Warminsko-Mazurski w Olsztynie, Wydział Prawa i Administracji).
Kornai, J. (1992) The Socialist System. (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
Krémer, B. (2009) Szociálpolitika. (Budapest: Napvilág Kiadó).
Lendvai-Banton, N. (2019) Radical politics in post-crisis Hungary: illiberal democracy, neoliberalism and the end of the welfare state, In: Kennett, P. & Lendvai-Banton, N. (eds.) Handbook of European Social Policy (Cheltenham & Northampton: Edward Elgar), pp. 400-414.
Nagy, M. & Hoffman, I. (eds.) (20142) A Magyarország helyi önkormányzatairól szóló törvény magyarázata (Budapest: HVG-Orac).
Velkey, G. (2017) Központi állam és önkormányzatok, In: Ferge, Zs. (ed.) Magyar társadalom- és szociálpolitika. (Budapest: Osiris), pp. 125-160.
Waltermann, E. (2011): Sozialrecht (Heidelberg: C. F. Müller).
It is a condition that the authors assign copyright or license the publication rights in their articles, including abstracts, to Institute for Local Self-Government Maribor. This enables us to ensure full copyright protection and to disseminate the article, and of course Journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors retain many rights under the Institutes' right policies, which can be found at journal.lex-localis.press. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources.
