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.
Editors and Affiliations
Free University Berlin, Germany
Irwin Collier,
Herwig Roggemann,
Oliver Scholz,
Horst Tomann
About the editors
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
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Welfare States in Transition
Editors: Irwin Collier, Herwig Roggemann, Oliver Scholz, Horst Tomann
