Divide and Pacify: Strategic Social Policies and Political Protests in Post-Communist Democracies

Pieter Vanhuysse

Published by Central European University Press 2006

Divide and Pacify

Strategic Social Policies and Political Protests in Post-Communist Democracies

Pieter Vanhuysse
With contributions by: Janos Kornai

https://doi.org/10.1515/9786155211447

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Vanhuysse Pieter :

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.

Kornai Janos :

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.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Tables Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
List of Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Foreword János Kornai Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	xix
Chapter 1 Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 2 The Unexpected Peacefulness of Transitions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
Chapter 3 Political Quiescence despite Conditions for Conflict Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Chapter 4 Preventing Protests: Divide and Pacify as Political Strategy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
Chapter 5 The Great Abnormal Pensioner Booms: Strategic Social Policies in Practice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
Chapter 6 Peaceful Pathways: The Political Economy of Post-Communist Welfare Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Chapter 7 Conclusions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Index of Names Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Subject Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167

Language: English
Publisher: Central European University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 190
Keywords: Economic policy; Labor history; Patronage; Political economy; Protests; Sociology; Transition

eBook

Published: September 30, 2006
ISBN: 9786155211447