Social Care under State Socialism (1945-1989)

In the discourses on ̀Social Care under State Socialism' we find, until today, the prejudice, that this subject has, evidently, not existed, because social work as a professional discipline was abolished to the largest extent. The fact, that many social risks could be avoided by a comprehensive social system, and that the assistance for people in need was actually rather transferred than neglected, seems to be beyond the consideration. The second prejudice that is still ongoing, is the idea that any kind of evidence (that may eventually refer to the real existence of a social care system) demonstrates, that its principles were fundamentally instructed by ̀Moscow' and have been performed in a totally standardized way.

The results of the research, presented in this book, show that these images are generally not according to the welfare structure beyond the ̀iron curtain', because they are mistaking normative pronouncements for an accurate description of reality. As a matter of fact, the refusal of the bourgeois welfare traditions and the ban of the term ̀social work' did not exclude the fact, that the ̀care for the people' has been one of the major topics of the socialist politics in all Eastern European countries. --Book Jacket.