Jnos Zolnay

Civitias Europica Centralis Foundation Budapest

Towards a caste-like society. Trends and
impact of exclusionary social policy of the
illiberal state in Hungary
L o c a l st u d y i n a s m a l l r e g i o n i n Ea ste r n
Hungary
 Fall of the constitutional state
Assumptions
The significant exclusionary change in public sentiment
and political orientation played a decisive role in the
failure of the republic and constitutional state and
establishing an authoritarian system in the country
after 2010
Not only profound economic and technological
changes, thus the devaluation of formerly marketable
professions and skill can depress and push into many
families to underclass situation, but drastic
exclusionary turnabout in social and educational policy
as well.
 Challenges of transition
Challenges
Dramatic decline of employment rate
Dramatic decline of employment rate of unskilled (ISCED2)
Two basic dilemmas
By what means and methods can participation in social division of
labour as a social integration scheme be replaced at least provisionally
until the rate raises to an acceptable level due to expected economic
growth.
By what kind of education system had to be implemented so that to
achieve the fast improvement of would be employees skills and
qualifications after many decades of under-education forced by the
state socialist (communist) regime and the former state owned
enterprises, cool mines, agricultural cooperatives that had unlimited
request for unskilled workers.
Welfare consensus inactive statuses
Retirement of active aged unemployed
The number of active age pensioner doubled
between 1990 and the turn of the millennium then
slowly started to reduce. In 1993 not less than one
third 40-49 old Roma men were pensioners and in
ten years, that astonishing number only sank to 27
percent
Income-like family allowance benefit systems
Welfare consensus expansive public
education
Public education was based on a free curriculum, output
regulation, normative funding, a diversified school system and
free school choice
Compulsory school attendance age was raised to 18 years
Municipal councils that maintained schools had a vested
interest in maximizing the number of secondary school
students and, as a consequence, the enrolment ratio in
secondary grammar and secondary vocational schools
increased significantly
The massive expansion of secondary education greatly
improved the chances of disadvantaged and Roma pupils in
further education.
 Poverty alleviation or preventing
underclass
Assumption: we cannot talk about massive underclass situation
if pension scheme, the family allowance provision and the social
benefits reach the poor no matter how unequal is their
distribution
if the very corrupt health supply even with devastated
infrastructure doesnt deny anyones care
if the compulsory school attendance age is 18 years
if the selectivity of public education doesnt reach the extent
that systematically reduces the chances of the most unprivileged
pupils to continue their education in secondary level

Up till 2010 basically and generally this was the case even
though sporadically there were underclass communities
 Overturning the welfare consensus
The consensus was based on a kind of identity of
interest emerged between the losing and winning
groups of redistribution and provision systems,
and services
The overturning of the consensus may be seen
also as the wining groups having walked out of
the tacit deal, and made it clear that they no
longer want to use common institutions,
common social spaces, and common services
with most destitute groups especially with the
Roma.
 Exclusionary turnabout in social
policy
Flat tax
Drastic cutting of unemployment benefit
Stigmatizing welfare clients
Mass and de facto compulsory public work
Work test
Replacement of public employees with public workers
Preventing real, assumed or generated interethnic tensions
Statistically improving employment rate
Providing local municipal governments with an instrument
whereby they can force into compliance the local destitute ,
and thus apparently maintain social peace
Legitimising the ideology of the work based society
 Drastic exclusionary change in
educational policy
The state became the maintainer of primary,
secondary and vocational schools
The curriculum is controlled by the
government
The normative financing system were ceased
Government again determines the required
number of secondary and vocational schooling
The compulsory school attendance age were
reduced from 18 to 16 years
 Foreseeable consequences of drastic
exclusionary change in educational policy
The secondary school frame is intended to be
reduced by 30-35 percent
At least 150 thousand pupils are to be crowd
out from secondary schools
Total elimination of Roma pupils chance to be
enrolled to secondary schools
The government is explicitly in favour of
further strengthening ethnic based
segregation
 Researching the local region
in Eastern Hungary
With 66 thousand inhabitants living in 23 villages
and 3 small towns
With the proportion of 22 percent of Roma
population
With 5700 primary school students
45 percent of primary school students are Roma
including church maintained school
56 percent of primary school pupils are Roma in state
maintained schools
 The main question
whether the forms and samples of local
practice of public employment and the
selection and segregation trends in
primary schools (and even in pre-
schools); can be perceived and defined as
pathway to underclass
 Underclass or caste like society

Due to the exclusionary social policy the society tends to be

divided along new cleavages separating those who have
opportunity to acquire skills adequate to requirement of
primary labour market; who can avoid paternalistic
dependency and vulnerability to local authorities and those
who are remained excluded.
But however in the aftermath of the fall of inclusive social
policy, situation of destitute is cannot be described as
massive underclass but formation of caste like society
instead. The key element of differentiation is definitely the
compulsory and massive public employment system that
offers very low quality secure standard of living. But such
secure standard of living also contributes the social
exclusion of long term unemployed due to extreme level of
personal dependency and vulnerability
 Paternalistic dependency and
protection of the unskilled
Public workers are completely deprived from legal protection
In case they are excluded by the mayors from public work
they also lose their minimum amount of aid for two years
The mayors make it clear to every public worker that their job
is in fact superfluous, and she/he is unnecessary to be
employed and has to be grateful for temporarily being
transferred from a subsidized status to public-employment
status.
Public workers are at mercy of the local municipal council to
such degree that in some cases mayor forces them to enrol
their children to segregated kindergartens or primary schools
maintained by churches instead of public ones that would be
obliged to admit them without any consideration.
 Alternative breed winning strategies
of the unskilled
All other breed winning income-generating
strategies must fit into the public employment
system.
Casual works at the most might supplement
wages
The other income generating strategies are
uncertain, semi legal or are hardly criminal
and embedded in cruel exploitation systems.
 Chances of escape from paternalistic
dependency
Only permanent job (in Hungary or elsewhere in the
EU) in the real labour market provides opportunity to
escape from paternalistic dependency. But however
this can only be achieved if
one has matriculation or
a marketable qualification with job experience and
minimum level language skill

The drastic exclusionary turnabout in educational policy

prevents exactly this from hundreds of thousands who
are excluded from the opportunity to be enrolled in
secondary schools.
 Limitation of state maintained primary
schools selection
Statutory compulsion to enrol pupils living in
their catchment area
Multiply disadvantaged pupils commuting
from other catchment area have to given
preferences in enrolment
 High communing rate of primary school
students and its importance

Primary school pupils commuting rate is so high that can

neutralize the previously assumed impact of residential
segregation on the level of school segregation
Prestigious schools are attended by overall more students
than those living in their catchment area but fewer multiply
disadvantaged and Roma students compared to the
number of them living in their catchment area. The
students commuting balance sheet is positive in total, but
in case of multiply disadvantaged and Roma students the
rate is negative
 Schools and maintenance can directly
circumvent their legal obligations by:
Streaming and setting: launching billingual classes or
faculties so that to enlarge or quit catchment area
Streaming and setting: Launching special programmes
so that to make legal ground for selection
Making legal ground for selection by designating them
as schools for ethnic and national minorities
Maintaining segregated schools for long term by
designating them as schools for ethnic and national
minorities
 Schools and maintenance can indirectly
circumvent their legal obligations by:

Handing over the maintenance of prestigeous

schools to churches
Outsourcing segregation by handing over
the maintenance of segregated schools to
churches
 The spiral of social exclusion
In the small region there are
Three rural attractive cream skimming schools
and as a consequence of the white flight
Eleven totally segregated and three mildly segregated vacuum schools
The most prestigious school in a small town had designated itself as a
school with special programme for German national minority so that
to get rid of its obligation to enrol Roma students living in its
catchment area (In that town has never lived Germans)
Two totally segregated rural schools had been designated as schools
with special programmes for Roma ethnic minority so that to avoid
closure because mayors were personally interested in their further
operation (In these two villages just Hungarian speaking Roma families
are living unlike the neighbouring villages where native Romani
speakers are living among others
 The spiral of social exclusion
1) Case
The maintenance of a prestigious school were taken over
by Roman Catholic Church together with teachers and
students. The religious character is just formal. The school
started to gradually displace its Roma students and
refused to enrol Roma children to its first grade
As a response to that challenge: The state maintained school
launched bilingual programme so that to keep its prestige and
attractiveness among middle class parents. (Setting) The
catchment area of the bilingual programme was enlarged to the
whole small region in practise the school can admit and enrol
whoever it wishes. Moreover, the segregation among paralel
classes is extremely high (Streaming)
The spiral of social exclusion
c) As a response to the challenge of bilingual class
teachers of the Catholic school launched pre-selective
dwarf German language session at kindergartens still
maintained by the local municipality. Only well informed
parents are aware that participation is the informal
precondition of their childrens admittance to Catholic
school. Roma parents are dissuaded from dwarf German
language sessions
d) As a response to that challenge of pre selective strategy
of the Catholic school, state maintained school launched
pre-selective dwarf English language session at
kindergartens Only well informed parents are aware that
participation is the informal precondition of their childrens
admittance to bilingual programme. Roma parents are
dissuaded from dwarf English language sessions
 The spiral of social exclusion
As a consequence of the process there are five level selection techniques in
the town
Dwarf English session at kindergartens. Teacher involved in dwarf
English session at kindergarten and well informed parent are aware that
would be pupils enrolling to bilingual faculty will have to know a few
words in English.
Catchment area of the bilingual branch of the school is the whole small
region (not only the city but the small region as a whole!) therefore the
admission selection is unlimited. The school can admit and reject whoever
it wants. The general faculty of the school however has a demarcated
catchment zone in the city.
German language is taught in the general faculty of the school. German
language is obviously very important, but however, in all cases when
German is taught instead of much more popular English, pupils feel
deprived and they are under-motivated to learn it. German course
becomes an alibi or quasi language teaching as Russian course used to be
in socialist/communist area.
Extremely high level of inner segregation can be observed among classes.
 The spiral of social exclusion
2) Case
Ten years ago he mayor of a small town
instructed the school principal to eliminate
segregation among parallel classes (Streaming)
b) As a response to that challenge many influential
middle class parents (after the exclusionary
turnabout, with the support of the minister who is
originally a Calvinist pastor) outsourced their elite
cream skimming school to the neighbouring small
village which doesn't have Roma population.
 The spiral of social exclusion
c) As a response to that challenge the rest of
influential middle class parents started to demand
that Calvinist church should establish and build up
religious school in upward system In four years the
middle class parents successfully demanded to
launch the upper grade (5th 6th 7th 8th classes) at
the same time.
 The spiral of social exclusion
As a consequence of the process
The completion of religious school resulted in
total separation Roma and non Roma students
in the small town
 Distribution of all non Roma and Roma
students living in the small region (%)
Distribution of all non Distribution of all Roma
Roma students living students living in the small
Primary schools in the small region region
Church maintained
religious schools 37,9 2,0
Attractive cream simming
schools at small towns 18,3 9,9
Rural attractive cream
skimming school 19,1 3,6
Mildly segregated
schools 9,9 13,2
Segregated schools 11,8 66,0
 Distribution of all non Roma and Roma students among
primary schools ranking primary schools based of their pupils
achievement measured annually by the government) %

Distribution of all non Distribution of all Roma

Roma students living students living in the small
Primary schools in the small region region

1 (the best) 53,2 11,4

2 27,6 12,5
3 7,7 10,4
4 8,6 29,6
5 (the worst) 3,0 36,1
 The distribution of non Roma and Roma
students in classes in which the proportion of
Roma pupils is... (%)
0-25 25-50 51-75 76-99 100
0% % % % % %
Non Roma students
28,5 36,5 19,0 11,1 4,9
Roma students
5,8 14,8 23,7 35,9 19,8
 Conclusions - underclass or caste
like society
Due to the exclusionary social policy the society tends to be
divided along new cleavages separating those who have
opportunity to acquire skills adequate to requirement of
primary labour market; who can avoid paternalistic
dependency and vulnerability to local authorities and those
who are remained excluded.
But however in the aftermath of the fall of inclusive social
policy, situation of destitute is cannot be described as
massive underclass but formation of caste like society
instead. The key element of differentiation is definitely the
compulsory and massive public employment system that
offers very low quality secure standard of living. But such
secure standard of living also contributes the social
exclusion of long term unemployed due to extreme level of
personal dependency and vulnerability
 Thank You for your attention
Jnos Zolnay
Civitas Europica Centralis Foundation
jzolnay@gmail.com
w.w.w.cecid.net