Welfare States in Central and Eastern Europe: A Search for New Comparative Perspectives

This roundtable panel will gather five experienced researchers who are currently engaged in comparative study of the welfare states in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). They represent quantitative and qualitative perspectives and have studied post-communist transitions and individual policy areas such as pensions, family support, and poverty/social inclusion. The proposed panel will tackle four general questions related to the past, present, and future comparative study of this region of Europe and its integration within the mainstream, interdisciplinary scholarship on social policy. What have we learned from our attempts to apply the existing, leading theoretical models and typologies of the welfare state to CEE? What challenges do we still face in this regard and especially in trying to make comparisons of social policies across different regions of Europe? Does empirical evidence collected from CEE countries point to greater convergence or divergence in policy responses to the contemporary societal, cultural, and labor market changes within the European Union? What does the study of CEE welfare states tell us about processes and institutions involved in the emerging democratic systems across the region? Each panelist will bring into the discussion arguments and ideas derived from their own, latest research, with special attention devoted to the latest pension reforms, changing employment patterns, "atypicalization" of work, social investment policies, and anti-poverty campaigns, for example. Using this evidence, we will try to answer the question whether the contemporary welfare states in CEE, now firmly anchored within the EU, are better or worse equipped for future challenges.