THE POLITICS OF PENSION REFORM IN EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES: THE SLOVAK EXAMPLE

• Authors: Coimbra Marta
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The collapse of the state-socialist regimes at the end of the 1980s brought out the idea that liberalism and globalization were synonyms of development and well-being in general. The opening-up of the post-socialist economies was a desirable event not only for the liberal world, but also for the countries that wished to belong to a more advanced group of nations. This article discusses the influence of economic globalisation on post-socialist welfare states. Since the issue under discussion is political by nature, the topic of pensions is a good example of how political context has defined the diverse futures of structural reforms in post-socialist countries. Perhaps the most indicative of the tendency to be identified is extensive literature about external pressure that Eastern European countries have been facing since the end of state socialist dictatorships. Most of the times, international organizations, particularly the World Bank, are blamed for imposing a neoliberal reform without taking into consideration the particularities of each country and, above all, the citizens’ interests. In our view, however, this is only one part of the story as there are many other elements that should be considered as well. We will analyse the problem from a historical perspective, which will allow us to divide the analysis into two main periods: the first years after the economic reconversion (1990-2004) and the time after the financial crisis, which started in 2008 and whose effects are still felt today. The Slovak case will be analysed as an example, given that ideological features of the Slovak pension reform document the change of the course from an old state-socialist to a new neoliberal type of welfare state.

Keywords

EN

PENSION REFORM; SOCIAL POLICY; POST-SOCIALISM; EASTERN EUROPE; SLOVAKIA

• Publisher: Institute of Political Sciences, SAS
• Journal: Studia Politica Slovaca: časopis pre politické vedy, najnovšie politické dejiny a medzinárodné vzťahy
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 46 – 64

Contributors

author

Coimbra Marta

• Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra, R. do Norte 37, 3000-295 Coimbra, Portugal