Filling the Demand Gap: The Success of Centrist Entrepreneurial Populism in the Czech Republic

Saxonberg, Steven; Heinisch, Reinhard

doi:10.1080/09668136.2022.2136624

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…During the main part of the pandemic in Czechia, the centre‐populist entrepreneurial ANO was in power in a coalition with the Social Democrats, who strongly supported encompassing, generous measures. ANO went in the same direction because it saw a political opening in the centre‐left, seen by the fact that in the 2017 elections it greatly increased its votes by appealing to previous social democratic voters when Social Democratic party imploded (Saxonberg & Heinisch, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergency welfare states in action: Social policy adaptations to COVID‐19 in the Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia

2023

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This article analyses the developments of the welfare state's reaction to the pandemic in Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia during 2020–2022, asking whether the changes in social policy represent only temporary responses to the challenges of the pandemic, or if the changes will likely lead to long‐run transformative changes in social policies. All three countries applied emergency adaptive changes to some extent except for job protection, as the short‐time work schemes represent a permanent change in Czechia and Slovakia. Furthermore, the absorption capacity of the welfare state was relatively good, which enabled the countries to avoid the negative social impacts of the crisis in terms of increased unemployment, poverty, and social exclusion. We argue the governments did not introduce permanent third‐order change because they already introduced such changes during the transition to the market economy in which they introduced a low‐expenditure welfare state trajectory. During the pandemic, this trajectory limited their fiscal space for introducing reforms that could radically expand the welfare state. Policy learning and political constellations also had some influence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergency welfare states in action: Social policy adaptations to COVID‐19 in the Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia

2023

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“…For this reason, some scholars have labelled these populist parties technocratic populist parties (Buštíková, 2019;Hanley & Vachudová, 2018;Havlík, 2019b;Vachudová, 2019). Others have labelled them entrepreneurial populists, claiming that the leaders do not base their arguments on the notion that they are the best-qualified technocrats; rather, they claim that since they are able to run a business efficiently, they would also be able to manage the state efficiently (Brunnerová, 2019;Hloušek et al, 2020;Heinisch & Saxonberg, 2017;Saxonberg & Heinisch, 2022). Although such populist parties declare themselves to be anti-political, they can still be classified based on their ideological stances (e.g.…”

Section: Political Populism and Welfare Statementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Czech case, although both populist parties are entrepreneurial (Hloušek et al, 2020), scholars have labelled ANO as centrist populist (e.g. Havlík, 2019b;Saxonberg & Heinisch, 2022;Vachudová, 2019) and UPD/SPD (radical) as right populist (Rooduijn et al, 2019).…”

Section: Political Populism and Welfare Statementioning

confidence: 99%

“…So far, little has been written about how centrist-populist parties design their WS objectives, policy measures, deservingness criteria and target groups. Heinisch and Saxonberg (2017) and Saxonberg and Heinisch (2022) argue that centrist-populist parties hold the political centre by combining leftist ideas (e.g. increased social benefits) with rightist ideas (e.g.…”

Section: Economic and Administrative Objectives (Instrumental Objecti...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Czech case, the centrist-populist ANO (Action of Dissatisfied Citizens) has become one of the largest parties, leading the government from 2017 to 2021 and representing the junior partner in the coalition government from 2014 to 2017. According to Heinisch and Saxonberg (2017) and Saxonberg and Heinisch (2022), many Czech voters have social-liberal values, but they have not had any viable social-liberal parties to vote for, which left an opening for a centristpopulist party like ANO to emerge. They define social liberalism as support for a generous welfare state and centrist socio-economic values combined with a preference for private rather than public provision of welfare services, cash rather than services and market solutions rather than welfare issues.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Populism and Growing Welfare State Agenda: Elections of 2013 and 2017 in Czechia

Sirovátka¹,

Novotná²,

Saxonberg³

2024

Czech Sociological Review

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Although previous studies show that welfare policies are important for populist voters, few studies have analysed in depth the social policy proposals of different types of populist parties. Since the Czech Republic is one of the few countries with a strong centrist-populist party that has been in power, this article concentrates on the Czech case and compares this centrist-populist party to the largest right-wing populist party and the main non-populist parties. We argue that the centrist and rightist Czech populist parties have developed different types of welfare agendas. The centrist-populist party supports encompassing and universalist policies (which it links to economic efficiency and administrative improvements); in contrast, the right-wing populist party supports the protection of those in need while preserving the principles of merit and economic incentives.

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‘The more populism types you know, the better political scientist you are?’ Machine-learning based meta-analysis of populism types in the political science literature

Naxera

Kaše

Stulík

2023

Journal of Contemporary European Studies

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Filling the Demand Gap: The Success of Centrist Entrepreneurial Populism in the Czech Republic

Cited by 9 publications

References 44 publications

Emergency welfare states in action: Social policy adaptations to COVID‐19 in the Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia

Emergency welfare states in action: Social policy adaptations to COVID‐19 in the Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia

Populism and Growing Welfare State Agenda: Elections of 2013 and 2017 in Czechia

‘The more populism types you know, the better political scientist you are?’ Machine-learning based meta-analysis of populism types in the political science literature

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