A Társadalomtudományi Kutatóközpont (MTA Kiváló Kutatóhely)

Szociológiai Intézete
tisztelettel meghívja 93. Jour Fixe eseményére

Adrienn Győry, Kerem Gabriel Öktem, Dorottya Szikra: Comparing social policy reforms under democratic backsliding in Hungary, Poland, Russia and Turkey

 

Előadó: Szikra Dorottya (TK SZI)

Szerzők: Dorottya Szikra (TK SZI), Kerem Gabriel Öktem (Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Bremen), Adrienn Győry (Researcher at CEU Democracy Institute)

Hozzászólók: Boda Zsolt (TK Főigazgató), Messing Vera (TK SZI) 

Időpont: 2022. április 21. csütörtök 13:00 

Helyszín: Az eseményt hibrid formában tartjuk meg.

Személyesen: Szociológiai Intézet 1097 Budapest Tóth Kálmán utca 4.;  B.1.15 tárgyaló

Online: Zoom link: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87972821043?pwd=bTRvNEVnMEhSMmVDUTNoTDN0VzJXZz09
Passcode: 186318

Absztrakt

Around the world democracy is under pressure, while autocratization surges. Illiberal regimes attack media and civil society and dismantle institutions of checks and balances. But what do these regimes do to their welfare states? Do governments expand, retrench or simply maintain the status quo? And in what ways are welfare state reforms connected to the process of democratic backsliding? Do welfare reforms even contribute to regime popularity and legitimacy? In short: Is there a welfare state chapter in the playbook of contemporary autocratizers?

To explore these questions, this study compares the welfare state trajectories of four prominent democratic backsliders: Russia under Vladimir Putin since 2000, Turkey under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) since 2002, Hungary under Fidesz since 2010 and Poland under the Law and Justice Party (PiS) since 2015. Selected as ‘diverse cases’, these countries all feature sufficiently well-developed welfare states to assume that social policy is high on the government agenda.

In our analysis, we employ a sequential mixed method approach. First, we conduct a descriptive analysis of public social expenditures. Second, we explore key welfare reforms in the fields of family policies, pension policies, social assistance and labour market policies. Throughout the analysis, we primarily focus on the content of policy changes and on which groups benefit or lose out in reforms. Which groups do autocratizers aim to include through welfare reforms? Which ones are neglected, or even outright excluded from benefits and services? What is the impact of welfare reforms in terms of social stratification? And how does this relate to the broader agenda of these illiberal regimes?

A teljes tanulmány kérésre elkérhető a szerzőktől: szikra.dorottya@tk.hu