Metamorphoses of Welfare States in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

This chapter deals with the protracted processes of social policy transformations in Central and East European post-communist countries. Parallel processes of political democratization, institutionalization of the market economy, globalization and Europeanization form the relevant context of genuine domestic decision making and implementation. From a scholarly point of view, the processes of their societal transformations have been — and still are — a series of exciting natural experiments. As Esping-Andersen (1996a, p. 267) remarked: ‘East and Central Europe is clearly the most under-defined region, a virtual laboratory of experimentation’.

I would like to thank my colleague Magdalena Mouralová for her assistance in providing relevant information.