{"product_id":"postcommunist-welfare-states-reform-politics-in-russia-and-eastern-europe-paperback-softback-9780801479007","title":"Postcommunist Welfare States; Reform Politics in Russia and Eastern Europe (Paperback \/ softback) 9780801479007","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003ePostcommunist Welfare States\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eReform Politics in Russia and Eastern Europe\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eLinda J. Cook (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780801479007\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 15 August 2013\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e288 pages, 37 tables, 5 charts\/graphs, 3 line drawings - 37 Tables, unspecified\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.454 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn the early 1990s, the countries of the former Soviet Bloc faced an urgent need to reform the systems by which they delivered broad, basic social welfare to their citizens.\u003c\/b\u003e Inherited systems were inefficient and financially unsustainable. Linda J. Cook here explores the politics and policy of social welfare from 1990 to 2004 in the Russian Federation, Poland, Hungary, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Most of these countries, she shows, tried to institute reforms based on a liberal paradigm of reduced entitlements and subsidies, means-testing, and privatization. But these proposals provoked opposition from pro-welfare interests, and the politics of negotiating change varied substantially from one political arena to another. In Russia, for example, liberalizing reform was blocked for a decade. Only as Vladimir Putin rose to power did the country change its inherited welfare system.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCook finds that the impact of economic pressures on welfare was strongly mediated by domestic political factors, including the level of democratization and balance of pro- and anti-reform political forces. Postcommunist welfare politics throughout Russia and Eastern Europe, she shows, are marked by the large role played by bureaucratic welfare stakeholders who were left over from the communist period and, in weak states, by the development of informal processes in social sectors.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eList of Figures and Tables\u003cbr\u003e AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Welfare States and\u003cbr\u003e Postcommunist Transitions\u003cbr\u003e 1. Old Welfare State Structures and Reform Strategies\u003cbr\u003e 2. Non-negotiated Liberalization: Decentralizing\u003cbr\u003e Russia's Welfare State and Moving It Off-Budget\u003cbr\u003e 3. Contested Liberalization: Russia's Politics of\u003cbr\u003e Polarization and Informalization\u003cbr\u003e 4. Welfare Reform in Putin's Russia: Negotiating Liberalization within\u003cbr\u003e the Elite\u003cbr\u003e 5. Comparing Postcommunist Welfare Politics in Poland,\u003cbr\u003e Hungary, Kazakhstan, and Belarus\u003cbr\u003e Conclusion: Negotiating Welfare in Democratic and\u003cbr\u003e Authoritarian Transitions\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52542158635288,"sku":"9780801479007","price":22.96,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/postcommunist-welfare-states-reform-politics-in-russia-and-eastern-europe-paperback-softback-9780801479007","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}