Social policy in East and West finds itself today in the middle of a fundamental transition. The former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the successor states to the former Soviet Union are attempting to create the institutions needed for a modern market economy and a modern democratic welfare state. At the same time, the mature welfare states of Europe are struggling to solve the contemporary financial crisis of their systems of social entitlements. Because of fundamental economic and demographic trends, these systems will become increasingly difficult to sustain over the coming decades. The contributors overwhelmingly agree that it would be mistaken policy to simply copy the institutions of Western welfare states to the Eastern economies in transition. Instead one can learn much from the experience gathered over the past half century in Western welfare states.

Autorentext

MIRIAM BEBLO Lecturer in Social Policy, Freie Universität, Berlin MARIE BOHATA Senior Economic Researcher, Charles University Prague RONALD A. BRAND Professor of Law and Director of the Center for International Legal Education, University of Pittsburgh School of Law REINHARD HEINISCH Professor of Politics, University of Pittsburgh JENS HÖLSCHER DAAD Senior Fellow and Co-ordinator of Economic Research, Institute for German Studies, University of Birmingham EMIL J. KIRCHNER Professor in Government and Director of the Centre for European Studies, University of Essex. KAI A. KONRAD Professor of Public Economics, Free University of Berlin CATHRYN ROSS Research Assistant, Regulatory Policy Research Centre, Hertford College, University of Oxford ELINOR SCARBROUGH Lecturer in Government, and Co-Director of the Essex Summer School in Data Analysis and Collection, University of Essex ONDREJ SCHNEIDER Adviser to the Minister of Industry and Trade, Czech Republic; Consultant to IMF and World Bank MAIRON TEGZE Assistant Professor of Economics, Charles University, Prague FRANTISEK TURNOVEC Director of the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education, Charles University, Prague MARIE VAVREJNOVA Senior Researcher, Economic Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic HANS WEISFELD Lecturer in Economics, Free University of Berlin

Inhalt

List of Maps and Figures Biographical Notes Preface Introduction; I.Collier and H.Tomann PART I: CONCEPTUAL ISSUES OF THE MARKET SOCIETY The Market Economy and its Ethical Infrastructure; M.Bohata Comment; E. Scarbrough Functional Change in Property Rights in the Welfare State - Lessons from the Federal Republic of Germany; H.Roggemann Comment; R.A. Brand The State of Corporatism in a Central Europe in Transition; R.Heinisch PART II: SOCIAL POLICY IN TRANSITION The Role of Social Policy During the Transformation in Central Europe; O.Scholz and H.Tomann Comment; E.Kirchner Political Economy of Social Welfare Reform: the Parliamentary Election of 1996 in the Czech Republic; F.Turnovec Comment; K.A.Konrad The Enlargement of the European Union and the Harmonisation of Public Pension Systems; O. Schneider Comment; C.Ross PART III: DYNAMICS OF INCOME INEQUALITY Social Cohesion and Transition Dynamics; J.Hölscher Income Distribution in Transition Economies and its Dynamics; M.Tegze Comment; H.Weisfeld The Share and Position of Minimum Income Categories of Households in the Czech Republic; M.Vavrejnova Comment; M.Beblo Index