Reforming Poland’s Social Market Economy in the Age of Populism
The presentation will give an overview of my work – and ideas for future research – on recent economic and social policy developments in Poland and more broadly in Central and Eastern Europe. After the collapse of communism, most CEE countries implemented economic and social policy reforms that were inspired by the prevailing neoliberal paradigm. After avoiding a recession in the wake of the global financial crisis, Poland was considered as the region’s greatest success story in terms of economic reform. Yet, since late 2015, a new Christian-nationalist government has not only challenged the country’s constitutional order based on the rule of law and liberal democracy, but it has also pushed for much greater intervention of the state in the economy. While some social policy reforms (e.g. introduction of a relatively generous “Family 500+” child benefit programme) can be largely explained by partisan considerations, many economic reforms (especially emphasis on the promotion of domestically controlled – rather than foreign-owned – “national champions” in order to reduce dependency on foreign capital) are the result of a mobilization of a domestic managerial elites, rather than of purely “populist” politics.
Date: 26 April 2018, 9:30 (Thursday, 1st week, Trinity 2018)
Venue: 32-42 Wellington Square (Barnett House), 32-42 Wellington Square OX1 2ER
Venue Details: Violet Butler Room
Speaker: Dr Marek Naczyk (University of Oxford)
Organising department: Department of Social Policy and Intervention
Organiser: Ruth Moore (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: events@spi.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Social Policy and Intervention - Departmental Colloquium
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Members of the University only
Editor: Ruth Moore