A French translation of this essay appears as "La valeur du travail et sa retribution en Hongrie," in Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, no. 85, November 1990, pp. 3-19. An earlier version of this paper was presented in a seminar of the Group de Sociologie Politique et Morale, November 1986. It benefitted from conversations with Pierre Bourdieu and from lengthy discussions with Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot while their book, Les economies de la grandeur (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1987), was in progress. My thanks especially to Monique Djokic Stark for her helpful criticisms and suggestions.
