Locating Central and Eastern European emerging welfare regimes: is the youth welfare citizenship typology useful?

Abstract

Purpose The authors’ aim is to establish the variance of youth welfare citizenship regimes in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and to revisit the applicability of the regime approach to the emerging welfare regimes (EWRs). Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis follows the descriptive case study strategy aiming to discover diversity of youth welfare citizenship patterns. The case selection is made within the CEE country group, which includes countries in Central Europe, the Baltics, Eastern Europe and Southeast Europe, all sharing the communist past. The subdivision of these countries in reference to the welfare states can be made via the European Union (EU) membership based on the assumption that EU social policy frameworks and recommendations have an important effect on domestic policies. We included countries which are in the EU, i.e., with a similar political and economic transition path. There were three waves of accession to the EU in CEE countries. In the first wave (2004), all the Baltic countries, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Slovenia joined. In the second wave (2007), Romania and Bulgaria joined. Finally, Croatia joined the EU in 2013. Altogether 11 CEE countries are the EU members today, the remaining CEE countries are non-EU members and thus are excluded from the current research. Those countries which are part of the EU share similarities in social and economic reforms during the pre-accession period and after in order to reach a comparatively similar system with other member states. So, in terms of casing strategy these six countries can be named as emerging welfare regimes (EWRs) evolving transformations across different public policy areas. Handpicking of six countries out of 11 relies on the assumption that the Anglo-Saxon welfare system characteristics are more evident in the Baltic countries (Aidukaite, 2019; Aidukaite et al., 2020; Ainsaar et al., 2020; Rajevska and Rajevska, 2020) and Slovenia, while in Bulgaria and Croatia certain outcomes reflect the Bismarckian principles of social security (Hrast and Rakar, 2020; Stoilova and Krasteva, 2020; Dobrotić, 2020). This brings important variety into our analysis logic. Last but not least, we juxtapose six CEE EWR countries under analysis with six mature welfare regime countries representing different welfare regime types. Those mature welfare regime countries (Finland, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, UK) are not an explicit object of the study but help to put analysed CEE EWR cases into larger context and thus, reflect upon theoretical claims of the welfare regime literature. Findings The authors can confirm that the EWR countries can be rather well explained by the welfare citizenship typology and complement the existing knowledge on youth welfare regime typology clusters in the Western Europe. Estonia is clustered close to the Nordic countries, whereas Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia and Slovenia are close to the Bismarckian welfare model despite rather flexible, non-restricted educational path, universal child and student support. Bulgaria is an outlier; however, it is clustered together with mature Mediterranean welfare regimes. Former intact welfare regime clusters are becoming more diverse. The authors’ findings confirm that there is no any intact cluster of the “post-communist” welfare regime and Eastern European countries are today “on move”. Research limitations/implications Altogether 11 CEE countries are the EU members today. The remaining CEE countries are non-EU members and thus are excluded from the current research. Those countries which are part of the EU share similarities in social and economic reforms during the pre-accession period and after in order to reach a comparatively similar system with other member states. At least one CEE country was chosen based on existing theoretical knowledge on the welfare regime typology (Anglo Saxon, Beveridgean, Bismarckian) for the Post-communist country groups. Practical implications In the social citizenship dimension we dropped social assistance schemes and tax-relief indices and included poverty risk and housing measures. Youth poverty together with housing showed rather clear distinction between familialized and individualised countries and thus, made the typology stronger. In the economic dimension the preliminary picture was much fuzzier, mainly due to the comprehensive education in the region and intervention of the EU in domestic ALMPs (and VET) reforms. The authors added a new indicator (pro-youth orientation of ALMP) in order better to capture youth-sensitivity of policy. Social implications The authors included a working poverty measure (in-work poverty rate) in order to reflect labour market insecurity as an increasing concern. Yet, the analysis results were still mixed and new indicators did not help locating the regime types. Originality/value In order to improve the validity of the youth welfare citizenship regime economic dimension, Chevalier's (2020) model may also be worth revisiting. The authors argue that this dichotomy is not sufficient, because inclusive type can have orientation towards general skills or occupational skills (i.e. monitored or enabling citizenship clusters), which is currently ignored. Chevalier (2020) furthermore associates inclusive economic citizenship with “coordinated market economies” (referring to Hall and Soskice, 2001), which seems hardly hold validity in the Nordic and at least some CEE countries.

Active Labour Market Policies for Rural NEETs in Lithuania: A Case of Rural Municipalities

“…At the same time, Broka and Toots (2022) analysed youth welfare citizenship using selective/inclusive dichotomy. They found that all three Baltic countries represent the inclusive type.…”

“…They found that all three Baltic countries represent the inclusive type. The inclusive type is characterised by a low level of school dropout, high shares of students in vocational training and education (VET); high school enrolment rate, low youth unemployment; low NEET rate; low work poverty; high participation at youth-oriented ALMP; high youth employment rate (Broka & Toots, 2022). As for the Baltic countries, Latvia can be clearly distinguished with its focus on training initiatives.…”

“…As for the Baltic countries, Latvia can be clearly distinguished with its focus on training initiatives. In contrast, to some extent, Lithuania and Estonia focused on employment initiatives, e.g., the My First Job scheme with apprenticeship grants, voucher systems, and wage subsidies (Broka & Toots, 2022). Tosun et al (2017) analysed youth-oriented ALMP in the Nordic and Baltic states in 2013-2014, where they distinguished Estonia's more significant focus on human capital investment, while Latvia adopts a broad policy approach to investment in human capital, and Lithuania focuses on wage subsidies.…”

Guest editorial: Old and New Challenges for Welfare Regimes – A Global Perspective

“…Broka and Toots (2021) fill a gap in welfare regime literature by revisiting the youth welfare citizenship regimes typology developed by Chevalier (2016) for consolidated welfare states in six Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Rather than simply placing all CEE countries into a simplistic “post-communist” regime, the authors conduct a cross-country examination adapting Chevalier's indicators to CEE reality.…”

“…cash transfers, care, youth, taxation, education, health and others). The studies examine responses and challenges of social policy systems in Mozambique, Uganda, Ghana, Zambia and South Africa (Gasior et al , 2021), Brazil and Mexico (Tomazini, 2021), Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Slovenia and Bulgaria (Broka and Toots, 2021), Ecuador (Ubasart-González and Minteguiaga, 2021), India (Nakray, 2021), Japan (Milly, 2021), Austria (Landini, 2021), Mexico (Martínez-Martínez et al , 2021), Greece (Burgi and Kyramargiou, 2021) and 15 post-Soviet states [1] (Panaro, 2021). Most papers refer to emerging welfare states, and some discuss social policies in more consolidated social policy systems, such as the cases of Austria, Greece and Japan, which are currently facing challenges that involve citizens from emerging welfare states.…”