Welfare State in Post-Socialist Countries: Social Costs of Transformation
Welfare State in Post-Socialist Countries: Social Costs of Transformation

Author(s): Davorka Vidović
Subject(s): Economic policy, Welfare systems, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment, Fiscal Politics / Budgeting
Published by: Centar za politološka istraživanja
Summary/Abstract: Great turbulences, unpredictability and pressures due to a new social reality often follow the transfer from an old political and socioeconomic system into a new one. In the beginning of the 1990s, countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) transferred from socialist regimes into liberal democratic systems. On one hand, in terms of politics, this was a transition from an authoritarian to a democratic society, and on the other hand, in terms of economy, this was a transition from centrally planned economy into a free market economy. These two crucial transformations were a precondition for a whole range of other social changes in these countries. One of them was a transformation of welfare state, a system that had a significant influence on cohesion of a society as a whole, and therefore, could greatly determine the course of democratization. In this paper, I would like to give an overview of the key changes in the field of welfare in the context of internal economic and political transformations of the postsocialists Central and Eastern Europe countries, as well as in the context of external globalization pressures they have been exposed to at the same time.

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