Divide and Pacify

Strategic Social Policies and Political Protests in Post-Communist Democracies

Häftad, Engelska, 2023

Av Pieter Vanhuysse

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Despite dramatic increases in poverty, unemployment, and social inequalities, the Central and Eastern European transitions from communism to market democracy in the 1990s have been remarkably peaceful. This book proposes a new explanation for this unexpected political quiescence. It shows how reforming governments in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic have been able to prevent massive waves of strikes and protests by the strategic use of welfare state programs such as pensions and unemployment benefits.Divide and Pacify explains how social policies were used to prevent massive job losses with softening labor market policies, or to split up highly aggrieved groups of workers in precarious jobs by sending some of them onto unemployment benefits and many others onto early retirement and disability pensions. From a narrow economic viewpoint, these policies often appeared to be immensely costly or irresponsibly populist. Yet a more inclusive social-scientific perspective can shed new light on these seemingly irrational policies by pointing to deeper political motives and wider sociological consequences.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2023-09-15
Mått152 x 229 x 13 mm
Vikt284 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor192
FörlagCentral European University Press
ISBN9789633866993

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Pieter Vanhuysse obtained his PhD at the London School of Economics. A former fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at Collegium Budapest and the Higher Education Committee of the State of Israel, he currently holds a joint appointment as Lecturer in Political Economy at the School of Political Sciences and the Faculty of Education of the University of Haifa. His work centers on the politics of social policy, education, human capital, and democratic transitions.János Kornai is Professor Emeritus of Harvard University, Permanent Fellow Emeritus of Collegium Budapest, Institute for Advanced Study and Distinguished Research Professor of Central European University, Budapest. He is member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and of several foreign academies.

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The unexpected peacefulness of transitions2.1. Social costs and early breakdown prophesies2.3. Muted protests: Post-communist Europe in comparative perspective2.4. Conclusions Chapter 3 Political quiescence despite conditions for conflict3.1. Disruptive protests: The case of threatened workers3.2. Rival explanations of post-communist protest levels3.3. Conclusions Chapter 4 Preventing protests: Divide and pacify as political strategy4.1. Divide and pacify in theory: Splitting up the threatened workers4.2. Higher hurdles: The protest capacity of the unemployed and abnormal pensioners4.3. Informal exit and small-scale work before and after 19894.4. Sentenced to silence: Protest opportunity costs of the unemployed and abnormal pensioners4.5. Conclusions Chapter 5 The Great Abnormal Pensioner Booms: Strategic social policies in practice5.1. The unemployed: Divided first, squeezed later5.2. Pensioner policies: The wheel of fortune reversed5.3. Divide and pacify in action: The post-communist pensioner booms5.4. Conclusions Chapter 6 Peaceful pathways: The political economy of post-communist welfare6.1. Policy shift: Interpreting early pensions choices6.2. Generational politics: The subsequent evolution of welfare pathways6.3. Post-communist labor market strategies6.4. Alternative explanations of post-communist welfare politics6.5. Conclusions Chapter 7 Conclusions AppendicesReferencesEndnotes