Post-Communist Welfare Capitalisms: Bringing Institutions and Political Agency Back in

Abstract

This article explores the post-communist worlds of welfare capitalism in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe, including the successor states of the former Soviet Union. It discusses recent developments, whilst offering some additional theoretical reflections on the key factors that have shaped welfare state change over time. The text explores key institutional features characterizing these worlds of welfare capitalism in transition. In order to highlight the actions of political elites in the market, we discuss the notions of ‘state-enabled,’ ‘state-influenced’ and ‘state-interfered’ market economies. In this article, we introduce the term ‘captured welfare systems’ to refer to the ways in which some states and political elites interfere in the market in order to capture resources. In the conclusion, we move beyond classical approaches to institutional change based on path-dependency and lock-in arguments drawing attention to the importance of bringing institutions and political agency back into the analysis of welfare and its transformations.

Keywords: political economy of welfare capitalism, captured welfare system, Central and Eastern Europe, South-East Europe, former Soviet Union

JEL Classification: D60, D72, H53, I38, P20, P30