Divide and pacify [[electronic resource] ] : strategic social policies and political protests in post-communist democracies / / Pieter Vanhuysse

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910810108003321
• Autore: Vanhuysse Pieter
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Budapest ; ; New York, : Central European University Press, c2006
• ISBN: 978-6-15521-144-7; 978-615-5211-44-7; 9786155211447; 615-5211-44-2; 1-4294-1337-9
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (190 p.)
• Disciplina: 320.9437
• Soggetti: New democracies - Europe, Central; Patronage, Political - Europe, Central; Europe, Central Social policy; Poland Politics and government 1989-; Czech Republic Politics and government 1993-; Hungary Politics and government 1989-
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. [141]-164) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Introduction -- The unexpected peacefulness of transitions -- Political quiescence despite conditions for conflict -- Preventing protests: divide and pacify as political strategy -- The great abnormal pensioner booms: strategic social policies in practice -- Peaceful pathways: the political economy of post- communist welfare -- Conclusions.
• Sommario/riassunto: 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.