Welfare States in East Central Europe, 1919–2004

by Tomasz Inglot

• ISBN13: 9780521887250
• ISBN10: 0521887259
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-12
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

A comparative-historical study of welfare states in the former communist region of East Central Europe. Inglot analyzes almost one hundred years of expansion of social insurance programs across different political regimes. He places these programs in a larger political and socioeconomic context, which includes the most recent developments since the advent of democracy. Based on this research, he argues that despite apparent similarities the welfare states of East Central Europe, Czechoslovakia (Czech Republic and Slovakia since 1993), Poland, and Hungary have pursued distinct historical paths of development and change. He examines the highly unusual evolution of these welfare states in detail, tracing alternating periods of growth and retrenchment/reform, which he links to political and economic crises under communist rule. Inglot uses this comparative analysis of welfare systems to examine the continued influence of history over the politics and policies of the social safety nets in Eastern Europe.

Table of Contents

Figures and Tables	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction: Understanding Past and Present Social Policy Development in East Central Europe	p. 1
Postcommunist Welfare States in Transition	p. 3
The Scope of Analysis: East Central European Welfare States in a Historical Perspective	p. 6
Summary of the Main Argument	p. 8
The Dependent Variable: Major Social Insurance Programs in East Central Europe	p. 15
A Brief Note on Data and Methodology	p. 17
Summary of the Book	p. 19
The Welfare State in East Central Europe: A Conceptual and Theoretical Reconsideration	p. 21
The Welfare State as a Research Problem: West and East	p. 22
Understanding Historical Legacies of Social Policy in East Central Europe	p. 43
Institutional Legacies: State Building, Regime Change, and the Development of National Welfare States in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary, 1919-1989	p. 54
Social Protection as a State-Building Project	p. 55
Preexisting Social Policy Institutions	p. 56
Domestic Political and Socioeconomic Conditions	p. 57
Ideational Context: Foreign Influences and Domestic Debates	p. 60
Czechoslovakia	p. 62
Poland	p. 78
Hungary	p. 97
Summary: Comparison of Institutional Legacies and Developmental Stages of the Czechoslovak, Polish, and Hungarian Welfare States	p. 109
Policy Legacies and Welfare States under Communism: Cycles of Social Policy Expansion and Retrenchment in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary, 1945-1989	p. 119
Policy Legacies and the "Communist" Welfare States in East Central Europe	p. 119
Cycles of Crisis and the Development of the Welfare State under Communism in East Central Europe	p. 127
Czechoslovakia	p. 131
Poland	p. 147
Hungary	p. 176
Summary: Comparison of Social Policy Legacies of Communism in East Central Europe	p. 195
Historical Legacies, Welfare State Institutions, and the Politics of Social Policy Reforms in Postcommunist East Central Europe, 1989-2004	p. 211
Historical Legacies and Competing Explanations of Postcommunist Social Policy Developments	p. 212
Institutional and Policy Environment of the Welfare State at the Threshold of Regime Change	p. 214
Institutional Reforms and the Replication of the "Emergency" Policy Cycles of Welfare State Expansion and Retrenchment during the Postcommunist Era	p. 216
Czechoslovakia	p. 219
The Czech Republic	p. 226
Slovakia	p. 238
Poland	p. 252
Hungary	p. 277
Comparative Summary: Path Dependence in Post-1989 Development of Welfare States in East Central Europe	p. 295
Conclusion: Postcommunist "Emergency" Welfare States and Theoretical Exploration of Institutional Change and Social Policy Development	p. 306
Theoretical Implications	p. 307
Bibliography	p. 315
Index	p. 341
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