This book adopts novel theoretical approaches to study the diverse welfare pathways that have evolved across Central and Eastern Europe since the end of communism. It highlights the role of explanatory factors such as micro-causal mechanisms, power politics, path departure, and elite strategies.

'In this conceptually-sophisticated, richly-informed volume, Cerami and Vanhuysse bring together an exceptional group of scholars to debate path dependence and institutional transformation in CEE welfare states. The authors' impressive analysis of causal factors, including political elites' strategic use of social policy, makes the book an original and important contribution to the comparative welfare state literature.'

• Professor Linda J. Cook, Dept. of Political Science, Brown University, USA

'This edited volume is extraordinarily good. The editors are venturing new grounds in the study welfare state change, by deliberately going beyond the easy temptation of modelling new member welfare states after West European examples. The book provides the best overview to date of welfare state transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. It not only does so by bringing together the leading experts on the subject worldwide. The editors' theoretically well-informed and analytically illuminating and innovative approach to the study of welfare state (self-) transformation, which casts new light on the evolution of domestic and supranational social policy, will guarantee that this landmark book will be cited for many years to come. The comparative scope, historical depth, and timely position, should make the volume required reading for academics, students, and policy makers.' - Anton Hemerijck, Free University of Amsterdam

'An impressive book with a stellar line-up of authors that is theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich as it provides insights into the dynamics of change in Central and Eastern European countries since the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The book shows that there are no simple explanations of the transformation of CEECs' social policies, but that a wide range of factors elucidated by different analytic frameworks in particular historical and discursive institutionalism help explain countries' differing trajectories over time, including path-dependent or path-breaking policies, interest-based political coalitions that promote or oppose reform, and national or supranational ideas and discourse that frame those reform efforts.' - Vivien A. Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Boston University

Autorentext

ALFIO CERAMI is Research Associate at the Centre for European Studies of Sciences Po, Paris, France PIETER VANHUYSSE is Lecturer at the University of Haifa, Israel, and Research Affiliate at the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research in Vienna, Austria JOLANTA AIDUKAITE is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Research, Lithuania VEERLE DE MAESSCHALCK is Resarch Assistant at the Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy of the University of Antwerp, The Netherlands STEPHAN HAGGARD is the Lawrence and Sallye Krause Professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), USA TOMASZ INGLOT is Professor of Political Science and Douglas R. Moore Faculty Research Lecturer at Minnesota State University, USA ROBERT R. KAUFMAN is Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, USA KRISTINE KERN is Assistant Professor at Wageningen University, The Netherlands CLAUS OFFE was (until his retirement in 2005) Professor of Political Science at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany MIROSLAVA RÁKOCZYOVÁ is Researcher at the Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs, Prague CRISTINA RAT is Lecturer at the Sociology Department of the 'Babe?-Bolyai' University and Research Fellow at the Research Centre on Interethnic Relation (CCRIT), Cluj-Napoca, Romania TOMÁ SIROVÁTKA is Professor of Social Policy at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk Universityin Brno, Czech Repulic SIMONA MARIA STANESCU is a PhD. student in Sociology, Bucharest University and researcher at Quality of Life Research Institute, Romanian Academy, Romania DOROTTYA SZIKRA is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Eötvös University, Budapest HILDEGARD THEOBALD is Professor of Organisational Gerontology at Centre for Research on Ageing and Society, Vechta University, Germany BÈLA TOMKA is Associate Professor of Modern Social and Economic History at the Department of History, University of Szeged, Hungary NATASCHA VAN MECHELEN is Senior Researcher at the Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy in Antwerp, Belgium

Inhalt
Introduction: Social Policy Pathways, Twenty Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall; A.Cerami & P.Vanhuysse PART I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Social Policy in East Central Europe: Major Trends in the 20th Century; D.Szikra & B.Tomka Mechanisms of Institutional Change in Central and Eastern European Welfare State; A.Cerami Power, Order and the Politics of Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe; P.Vanhuysse PART II: COUNTRY STUDIES Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia: Adaptation and Reform of the Post-Communist Emergency Welfare States; T.Inglot The Transformation of Welfare Systems in the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; J.Aidukaite Welfare State Transformations in Bulgaria and Romania; A.Cerami & S.Stanescu PART III: SECTORAL ANALYSIS AND CHALLENGES Transnational Actors in Central and East European Pension Reforms; M.Orenstein Elder Care Systems: Policy Transfer and Europeanization; H.Theobald & K.Kern The Impact of Minimum Income Guarantee Schemes in Central and Eastern Europe; C.Rat Devolution of Social Protection Arrangements; N.van Mechelen & V.De Maerschalck The Impact of the EU Social Inclusion Strategy: the Czech Case; T.Sirovátka & M.Rákoczyová CONCLUSIONS: The Eastern European Welfare State in Comparative Perspective: S.Haggard & R.R.Kaufman Epilogue: Lessons Learnt and Open Questions; C.Offe