From Communal Social Policy to State Social Insurance

Social Rights, Modernisation and the “Social Question” in the Dualist Period

Abstract

In the study, I argue that the development of governmental social policy and the social security system in Hungary in the Age of Dualism was greatly influenced not only by the characteristics of the political structures preceding the First World War, but also by various ideological currents and movements related to the so-called “social question”, as well as the adoption of foreign models. In the second half of this period, the compulsory social security system was established on the Bismarckian model, thus transcending communal social policy, and the “social question” became a public law issue, partly as a public administration task related to modernization. By the time of the First World War, some thinkers, experts and politicians dealing with social issues had come to the realization that the social responsibilities of the state (Sozialstaat) were not only a fundamental factor of national development, but also a necessary step in the economic and social development interpreted in a European sense.