Welfare State Classification: The Development of Central Eastern European Welfare
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| 7. Conclusions This study has analyzed the developments of the welfare states of both Poland and Slovakia which have taken place in the period after the collapse of the communist regime with a focus on the period between 1995 and 2005. The starting point of this research was the discussion which is taking place in the literature about the development and classification of welfare states in general and of Central Eastern-European countries more specifically. The development of CEE welfare states is topic of discussion, mainly because of the communist regimes which have ruled throughout the 20 th century. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 the welfare state of former communist countries needed to be adjusted to the new market-oriented economies and to the (negative) implications of this development. Some scholars argued that the CEE welfare states would develop towards one of the existing Western welfare models, while others stated that CEE welfare states would develop towards a new, post-communist welfare model which was highly influenced by the legacies of the communist era. Again, after the collapse of the communist regime, CEE countries needed to adjust its social policy, but also new social policy needed to be created. Family benefits for example already existed during the communist era, but in order to coop with the new economic situation the policy concerning family benefits needed to be adjusted. On the other hand new policy needed to be created; during the communist era one could officially not observe unemployment. People had the rights and obligation to work. Thus, unemployment policy was not needed in the socialist welfare states and needed to be created since unemployment had risen significantly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Again, the question which has been addressed is whether or not the decisions made in the period after 1989 will lead to either a liberal, social-democratic, a conservative or maybe a post- communist welfare state. In other words, did Poland choose to develop liberal labour-market policies which in order to stimulate the economy or did it adopt social-democratic policies which protect workers? Download 374.54 Kb. Share with your friends:
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