The Political Economy of Pension Policy Reversal in Post-Communist Countries

This book examines how and why policies are reversed by focusing on post-communist backtracking on pension privatization.

Sarah Wilson Sokhey (Author)

9781316639535, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 January 2020

271 pages
23 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.5 kg

'… the book makes an important contribution both to pension policy and to market-oriented reform studies and will be appreciated by a wide audience of scholars and policymakers.' Daria Prisiazhniuk, Europe-Asia Studies

Why do governments backtrack on major policy reforms? Reversals of pension privatization provide insight into why governments abandon potentially path-departing policy changes. Academics and policymakers will find this work relevant in understanding market-oriented reform, authoritarian and post-communist politics, and the politics of aging populations. The clear presentation and multi-method approach make the findings broadly accessible in understanding social security reform, an issue of increasing importance around the world. Survival analysis using global data is complemented by detailed case studies of reversal in Russia, Hungary, and Poland including original survey data. The findings support an innovative argument countering the conventional wisdom that more extensive reforms are more likely to survive. Indeed, governments pursuing moderate reform - neither the least nor most extensive reformers - were the most likely to retract. This lends insight into the stickiness of many social and economic reforms, calling for more attention to which reforms are reversible and which, as a result, may ultimately be detrimental.

Figures and tables
Pension terminology
Preface
Part I. Introduction and Theory: 1: Introduction: explaining the puzzling reversal of pension privatization
2. Backtracking on pension privatization around the world
3. A theory of policy reversal
Part II. Global Trends in Pension Privatization Reversal: 4. Evidence on pension policy reversals from around the world
Part III. Pension Privatization Reversal under Moderate Reform
Overview of Case Studies: 5. Russia's staggered reversal of reform
6. Russia's domestic stakeholders and backtracking on reform
7. Variation in pension policy reversals: Hungary and Poland
Summary of case findings
Part IV. Conclusion: 8. The importance of understanding policy reversal
Appendix of interviews conducted by author
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Local government law [LNDU], Central government [JPQ], Politics & government [JP]