Path dependency and partisan interests: explaining COVID-19 social support programmes in East-Central Europe

ABSTRACT

What factors influence governments' social policy responses to the COVID-19 crisis in East-Central Europe? We attempt to answer this question by analysing the social policy responses to the pandemic across three distinct institutional varieties and welfare states: Estonia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Drawing on extensive analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, we argue that the constraints on government agency posed by previous, posttransition patterns of social policymaking and their underlying core institutional legacies have a distinct influence on governments' distributive choices. Governments' partisan interests are reflected in some of the enacted measures, albeit in less consolidated parts of welfare state structures.

KEYWORDS:

• Social policy
• COVID-19 crisis
• Estonia
• Slovakia
• Slovenia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research has been funded by the National Science Centre, Poland. Grant number 2020/37/B/HS5/00328, project webpage: https://www.pandemo.eu. The authors also gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the European University Institute's Research Council.

Notes on contributors

Alen Toplišek

Alen Toplišek is Lecturer in International Political Economy in the Department of European and International Studies, King's College London. His research focuses on the political economy and politics of Central and Eastern Europe.

Nils Oellerich

Nils Oellerich is a PhD researcher at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy. In his research he focusses on financial markets in East Central Europe with a specific focus on development banking.

Jasper P. Simons

Jasper P. Simons holds a PhD from the European University Institute (Florence, Italy) and currently is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (Cologne, Germany). His research focuses on political economy and European integration, with a regional focus on Central and Eastern Europe. His recent work has appeared in Czech Sociological Review, East European Politics, and Socio-Economic Review.

Edgars Eihmanis

Edgars Eihmanis is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Wrocław and the University of Tartu. His research focuses on the politics of public policy in East Central Europe and the European Semester.