Social Care under State Socialism (1945-1989): Ambitions, Ambiguities, and Mismanagement

By Verlag Barbara Budrich

In the period of State Socialism in Eastern Europe (1945- 1989) Social Welfare was exercised on two levels: The dominant level was the system of governmental Social Policy, because individual and private structures of so - cial help were considered as a dispensable bourgeois tradition. According to this perception, social welfare should include an extensive system of support and social services, although, in reality, special groups of ´´asocials´´ and ´´parasites´´ were excluded. Although - except for Yugoslavia - social work as a profession was nearly totally eliminated, modulated forms of social care had to be provided, because people like handicapped, elderly or mentally disabled still were in need. There - fore, Social Care was realised on a subordinated level - mostly allocated to proximate vocations or organisations like teachers, nurses and mass organisations. Experts from the respective countries explain what it was like. Countries under scrutiny: Bulgaria, Czechoslowakia, GDR, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union, Yugoslavia

• Language: English
• Publisher: Verlag Barbara Budrich
• Release date: Jun 17, 2009
• ISBN: 9783847413042

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