Introduction : Welfare dictatorships, the working class and socialist ideology : a theoretical and methodological outline -- 1968 and the working class : "What do we get out of socialism?" the reform of enterprise management in East Germany and Hungary -- Workers in the welfare dictatorships -- Workers and the party -- Contrasting the memory of the Kádár and Honecker regimes -- Conclusion : Squaring the circle? the end of the welfare dictatorships in the GDR and Hungary
Summary
The Communist Party dictatorships in Hungary and East Germany sought to win over the "masses" with promises of providing for ever-increasing levels of consumption. This policy-successful at the outset-in the long-term proved to be detrimental for the regimes because it shifted working class political consciousness to the right while it effectively excluded leftist alternatives from the public sphere. This book argues that this policy can provide the key to understanding of the collapse of the regimes. It examines the case studies of two large factories, Carl Zeiss Jena (East Germany) and Rába
