Filtering in Socialist Housing Systems: Results of Vacancy Chain Surveys in Hungary

This paper is concerned with housing mobility within the socialist housing system in Hungary. The statementsof the filtering theory have to be reformulated in the context of East European countries. On the basis of our empirical findings-acquired from three vacancychain surveys-it seems justified to reject the two main hypotheses concerning the role of the state in a socialist housing system. Our empirical data have revealed that the state form of provision cannot be regarded as either typically "social" or as clearly regressive. In addition, the social composition of the mobility processes is highly similar in the state and private spheres: filtering processes are started by higher-status social strata; better-off, higherranked families get better housing in both spheres. In our view both forms of housing provision are structured according to two different principles of allocation. Our results show that the changes in recent years in the Hungarian housing system do not only mean a shift in the proportion of state and private provisions (the latter gaining ground, i.e., strengthening tendencies of privatization) but also a modification of the inner, ecological structure of both forms of provision. Because of the similarity of the social processes in the two main provision forms, the recent privatization tendency has in itself no clear impact on the social outcome of the housing policy.