Czech Republic: Awakening of Politics of Welfare

From 2007, the Czech public considered changes and shifts in the domestic welfare system as the most radical turn since the loss of dynamics of the post-communist developments. Paradoxically, a gradual and generally modest neo-liberal drive did not even significantly reduce the effectiveness of the results of redistributive measures in reducing poverty (arguably the most successful one in this sense in the EU). This modesty in putting forward meritocratic principles executing relatively mild cuts, with most pronounced in health and family policy domains, sharply contrasts with the strength of the protest movement that brought radical as well as traditional leftist groups and parties together with trade unions. Keys used here to understand this paradox, do not consist just of largely exogenous stimulus of the global economic crisis, but mostly in politics of welfare and their historical roots.

We examine the specific shape of challenges, responses within the most dynamic policy domains, but also the larger social context. While seemingly not paired with a matching cause, the domestic dynamics of politics of welfare finally indicate some answers to accommodate the paradoxical awakening. This includes low attention to welfare state without any pronounced leitmotif in the preceding decade and parallel process of rise of new actors and reconfiguration of the older ones in the welfare arena. Finally, the conjunction of neo-liberal drive (though mild) and the relatively longer economic crisis made the politics of welfare of the Czech Republic more sensitive and thus alert in the last 7 years.