The article, starting from the debates surrounding the new Hungarian Health Insurance Reform Act (ultimately aiming at the privatisation of the health service) attempts to analyse the destruction of social welfare systems in East Central Europe. While politically endorsing the rearguard fight trying to save the remnants of the welfare state, the author is sceptical concerning their future in the post-Fordist era. The article makes a sharp distinction between the egalitarian, statist (nationalising) and redistributive model on the one hand and the normative concept of ‘socialism' on the other.

The article is only available in Hungarian.