Familialism in Flux: Role of Europe and Reconciliation in Hungary
| Author | Anil Duman,Anna Horvath |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271101300108 |
| Published date | 01 March 2011 |
| Date | 01 March 2011 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
European Jour nal of Social Secu rity, Volume 13 (2011), No. 1 143
FAMILIALISM IN FLUX: ROLE OF EUROPE
AND RECONCILIATION IN HUNGARY
A D* A H**
Abstract
e article analyses the Europeanisation of policies concerning the reconciliation of
work and family life in Hungary from the 1990s to 2006 from a domest ic actor-centred
perspective. More speci cally, it looks at how members of the Hungarian Parliament
– from government and opposition parties – f ramed European requirements and/or
standards and how they used references to European processes in their arguments.
e article distinguishes three periods of Europeanisation. In the rst period,
references made to the European Union were sporadic. e second period, before
2004, was the period of legal harmonisation. Finally, in the third period , a er the
2004 accession, the reconciliation of work and family life became an explicit goal of
the government, usually with references made to European processes and European
principles. Further more, the availability of European funding was an impor tant
trigger of reconciliation-related reforms. is analysis underlines the signi cance of
using Europe for legitimating domestic policy changes going against the traditional
family policy framework.
Keywords: European isation; family policy; Hungary; reconciliation; usages of
Europe
1. INTRODUC TION
National family policies di er in their generosity as well as in how they attribute
responsibility for care to the fa mily, the state or the market. I n comparison to other
countries in the region, Hungary has quite a comprehensive and stable system of
family policies, o en classi ed as gendered familialism (Leitner 2003). Historically,
during the period of state so cialism, familial ism in Hungary has meant maternalism.
* Central Europ ean University; Address: Nador u .9, 1051, Budapest, Hunga ry; phone: 0036 (0)1 327
3822; e-mail: dumana@hotmail.com.
** EACEA-Eurydice, E ducation Audiovi sual and Cult ure Executive A gency; Address : Avenue du
Bourget 1 BE-1140 Brussels, B elgium; e-mail: hor vathan@gmai l.com.
Anil Duma n and Anna Horvat h
144 Intersentia
Women were distinguished not only in ter ms of their biological attributes, but a lso by
the s ocia l view of thei r more pr omine nt role i n house hold wor k (Fodor 2003). In other
words, since the 1960s, a ‘mother identity’ was emphasised over a ‘worker identity’
for women in Hungary. is f raming was supported by the mai n social actors, as well
as by female wel fare bene ciaries, who overwhelm ingly opposed attempts to reduce
family bene ts based on their mother identity (Haney 2002). us, despite attempts
towards a liberal, means-tested and decentralised social a ssistance system, fa mily
policies have been largely kept intact.
Based on this stable fa milial ism in Hungarian fa mily policies, one would ex pect
EU accession to have had a relatively slow impact. However, the process leading up
to the country’s 2004 accession to the EU brought about gradual but visible policy
changes as the countr y accommodated to a European framework. One of the rst
examples was the 20 03 document on ‘ e Principles of the Governmenta l Programme
on Demographic Policies’, which signalled a shi in the fam ily policy discourse in t he
direction of reconciliation. is document moved away from previously established
demography-based arguments a nd made reference to several EU documents d iscussing
gender equality and best prac tices for childcare. is relat ively sudden c hange, as w ill
be shown below, might be attributed to the pro-EU attitude of t he major political
actors.
e aim of this article is to examine how the observed changes in Hungarian
family policies came about in spite of the stickiness of existing policy approaches.
In order to do so, the article look s at domestic ‘usages of Europe’ concern ing the
reconciliation of work and fami ly life between the 1990s and 2006 in a well-de ned
political arena, t he Hungarian Pa rliament. In Hungary, the social partners and civil
society organisations tend to be rather weak when it comes to in uencing legislation,
especially regarding reconciliation policies. Furthermore, traditional fam ilialism
has been largely supported by the mai n social actors as well as by the bene ciaries
of the system. erefore, in order to examine policy changes, t he most important
political arena to look at is Parliament itself. e article describes how members of
the Hungarian Pa rliament framed Europea n requirements and/or standards and how
they used references to Europea n processes in t heir arguments in order to legitimate
domestic reforms. Using such an approach, the a rticle aims to shed light on the
changing policy directions in Hungary.
e concept of ‘usages of Europe’ refers to ‘seizing the European Union as a set
of opportunities’ by various actors at the national level (Jacquot and Woll 2003). It
also means that domestic actors do not simply adapt their policies and discourses
to European requirements and goals, but they also re-construct and re-de ne these
goals and use them i n their own national context. When domest ic actors ‘use’ Europe,
they can use European concepts, statistics, regulations and nancial means as
strategic resources in political debates. is usage can be ‘cognitive’, ‘strategic’ and
‘legitimating’ (ibid .).
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