The Europeanisation of PostCommunist Welfare: Traversing a Quantum Leap

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The Europeanisation of Post-Communist Welfare
Traversing a Quantum Leap?

• Noemi Lendvai
• Postdoctoral Fellow,
• School for Policy Studies, Bristol, UK

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Quantum leap as a conceptual understanding of
the transformation of Post-Communist welfare in
the context of EU integration

• Theoretical sources
• Jessop, 2002 KNWS SWPR
• Szalai, 2003 EU integration is not simply a
  modernisation story
• Empirical sources (interviews with policy-makers)
• Tensions around the direction of reforms
  Keynesian approach argued to be outmoded and
  old-fashioned (SOLID in Hungary, WB in Croatia)

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From the Keynesian National Welfare State towards
a Schumpeterian Workfare Postnational Regime

• From Keynes to Schumpeter
• From Welfare to Workfare
• From National to Postnational
• From State to Regime
• Social policy implications The subordination of
  social policy to competitiveness and economic
  policy
• Attack on welfare rights, downward pressure on
  welfare spending, employment anchored social
  policy

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Dimensions of quantum leap

• WELFARE RIGHTS COME UNDER ATTACK IN THE
  CONTEXT OF WEAK SOCIAL CITIZENSHIP AND LOW LEVEL
  OF SOCIAL SPENDING
• THE WORKFARE AGENDA COMES IN THE CONTEXT OF
  HIGHLY IMBALANCED LABOUR-CAPITAL RELATIONS
• THE DISCOURSE ON SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND THE CALL
  FOR THE FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY COMES ONTO THE
  AGENDA IN THE CONTEXT OF TIGHT FISCAL POLICIES
  IMPOSED ON THE COUNTRIES
• GOVERNANCE IS TALKED ABOUT WHEN THESE COUNTRIES
  THINK IN TERMS OF GOVERNMENTS
• THEY FACE THIRD WAY ISSUES BEFORE EXPLORING THE
  FIRST TWO IN ANY MEANINGFUL SENSE
• THE GENDER AGENDA COMES WITHOUT THE FEMINIST
  MOVEMENT

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Key arguments

• EU integration is not simply a matter of
  underdevelopment structural imbalances
• It is not simply a modernisation story either,
  not a matter of time and phase delay only
• EU integration takes place in a very fragile
  context (the ruins of communism, still facing
  transitional dilemmas, suffering from the
  legacies of Accession)
• learning and adaptability is not apolitical,
  political choices in adaptation
• The need for critical approaches, but avoiding
  grand narratives (Americanisation, neoliberal
  restructuring, etc.)