Welfare States in East Central Europe, 1919–2004

Inglot analyzes historical patterns of expansion and evolution among welfare states in East Central Europe.

Tomasz Inglot (Author)

9780521887250, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 May 2008

382 pages, 27 tables
24 x 16.1 x 2.8 cm, 0.67 kg

'Overall Inglot presents a carefully laid-out conceptual framework of nearly a century of welfare state development in three (with Czechoslovakia's split in 1993, four) very different, if geographically close, countries in East Central Europe.' The Journal of Austrian History Yearbook

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.

Introduction
1. The welfare state in East Central Europe: a conceptual and theoretical reconsideration
2. Institutional legacies: state-building, regime change, and the development of national welfare states in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary, 1919–1989
3. Policy legacies of state socialism: cycles of social policy expansion and retrenchment in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary, 1945–1989
4. Historical legacies, welfare state institutions and the politics of social policy reforms in postcommunist East Central Europe
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Comparative politics [JPB]