Czech exceptionalism? A comparative political economy interpretation of post-communist policy pathways, 1989-2004

Title:

Czech exceptionalism? A comparative political economy interpretation of post-communist policy pathways, 1989-2004

Creator:

Vanhuysse, Pieter

Identifier:

https://cdk.lib.cas.cz/client/handle/uuid:4499ca0b-d814-403a-8e11-96372f2a4ffb
uuid:4499ca0b-d814-403a-8e11-96372f2a4ffb
urnnbn:urn:nbn:cz:aba007-000hi4

Subject:

public policies, political strategy, constrained democratic efficiency, East European welfare regimes, post-communist transformations, and path contingency

Type:

model:internalpart and TEXT

Format:

print

Description:

This article makes a plea for a more explicitly intentional and political-strategic analysis of post-communist public policy pathways. The author analyses a set of social and labour-market policies implemented in the Czech Republic (pro-active job loss prevention) compared to Hungary and Poland (large-scale non-elderly retirement), and indicates why, far from being fully constrained by structural or external variables or by international pressures, political elites were able to design policy packages that served to reduce anti-reform protests. Once enacted at a formative historical turning point, these early policies fundamentally reshaped the subsequent operational space of post-communist politics throughout the 1990s. They crystallised the distinct pathways of post-communist welfare regimes, and they enabled early, and irreversible, democratic and market reform progress. While seemingly inefficient, and definitely costly in public-fi-nance terms, these policy packages contained a degree of political rationality, as they contributed to the making of the great Czech, Hungarian, and Polish transition success stories, in an otherwise highly heterogeneous population of postcommunist transition cases.

Language:

Czech

Rights:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
policy:public

Coverage:

1115-1136 and 13-34

Source:

Sociologický časopis | 2006 Volume:42 | Number:6

Harvested from:

CDK

Metadata only:

false