This text is structured as follows. Section 1 concerns the background to this public lecture: the fact that social participation is becoming increasingly important in our society. This is evident, for example, from the way we are evolving from a protective welfare state into an activational, participative …

Before the change of the system in 1989 decisions were made by the communist state-party and all citizens of Hungary had to do was simply obeying these decisions; publicly questioning the communist rule was not done. What followed in the years after was a somewhat passive state of mind. Consequently, …