Nincs absztrakt.

Following 1920, the associations of the remaining Hungarian minority in Romania found themselves in a difficult situation in many respects, and were only able to reorganize themselves slowly. It was in parallel with this process that the National Hungarian Party came into being, providing political representation for the minority. During the second half of the 1930s’, criticism against the National Hungarian Party gradually grew stronger. Especially many members of the younger generations believed the Party’s leadership to have broken away from its popular basis. Therefore, they set out to implement a model of social organization capable of integrating the entire Hungarian ethnic minority into a homogeneous organization, simultaneously representing its political, economic and cultural interests. Peculiarly, it was in 1938, with the introduction of the royal dictatorship and the one-party system that the possibility opened up to realize these ideas by calling to life the Hungarian Popular Community. In 1940, following the new change in supremacy, the establishment and operation of Hungarian associations once again became free from obstacles in the Northern Transylvanian regions attached to Hungary. The concepts of organizing the Hungarians in Northern Transylvania on a national, but supra-class basis did not perish either. Using the fragmentary sources available, the present paper wishes to show the extent of the success or failure of such notions and endeavors, and the underlying reasons for them.

In welfare policies, next to helping out those in need, the intention to „discipline” was quite recognizably present from the beginning on in entire Europe as well as in Hungary. This ambition covered the entire scope of life of the concerned, including family relations and gender identity. Those involved in welfare policies aspired to control these spheres as well, as in return for benefits given. At the same time, the range of expectations and prescribed behavioural patterns were extended to social workers, too: in our case, social political literature, education and social expectations prescribed a clearly definable set of behavioural norms for – usually unmarried – women in the welfare profession. The study examines this question through the activity of two products of Hungarian welfare policies of the 30’s and 40’s: poor (beggar) attendance according to the Egri (later Hungarian) Norm and the National Foundation for the Protection of the People and the Family. This choice seems reasonable, since contemporary welfare politicians regarded these two systems the highest peak of Hungarian welfare activity. Accordingly, both professional literature on the topic and propaganda paid great attention to them and thanks to this, intentions of social reform were more in the foreground than in the case of other welfare policy systems.