ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the legacy of state socialist disability policy, as well as postsocialist processes of neoliberalisation, in terms of their maldistributive impact on disabled people in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It provides examples of continuing socioeconomic marginalisation of disabled people generated by segregated service provision and/or retrenchment of public support. The chapter reviews legislation, policy documents, reports and scholarly analyses that highlight the state socialist genealogy of the policies of placing disabled people in sheltered workshops and residential institutions in the postsocialist CEE. It conceptualises such policies of institutionalisation as major causes of contemporary socioeconomic marginalisation of disabled people in the CEE region, inherited from state socialism. The critique of the state socialist legacy is complemented by an analysis of the neoliberalisation of postsocialist disability policy. The analysis has been complicated by the lack of reliable data concerning disabled people, coupled with a dearth of in-depth studies of disability policies and discourses in CEE.
