The Political Economy of Pension Policy Reversal in Post-Communist Countries
Cambridge University Press, 10/26/2017
EAN 9781107189850, ISBN10: 1107189853
Hardcover, 268 pages, 23.5 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
Why do governments backtrack on major policy reforms? Reversals of pension privatization provide insight into why governments abandon potentially path-departing policy changes. Academics and policymakers will find this work relevant in understanding market-oriented reform, authoritarian and post-communist politics, and the politics of aging populations. The clear presentation and multi-method approach make the findings broadly accessible in understanding social security reform, an issue of increasing importance around the world. Survival analysis using global data is complemented by detailed case studies of reversal in Russia, Hungary, and Poland including original survey data. The findings support an innovative argument countering the conventional wisdom that more extensive reforms are more likely to survive. Indeed, governments pursuing moderate reform - neither the least nor most extensive reformers - were the most likely to retract. This lends insight into the stickiness of many social and economic reforms, calling for more attention to which reforms are reversible and which, as a result, may ultimately be detrimental.
Figures and tables
Pension terminology
Preface
Part I. Introduction and Theory
1
Introduction
explaining the puzzling reversal of pension privatization
2. Backtracking on pension privatization around the world
3. A theory of policy reversal
Part II. Global Trends in Pension Privatization Reversal
4. Evidence on pension policy reversals from around the world
Part III. Pension Privatization Reversal under Moderate Reform
Overview of Case Studies
5. Russia's staggered reversal of reform
6. Russia's domestic stakeholders and backtracking on reform
7. Variation in pension policy reversals
Hungary and Poland
Summary of case findings
Part IV. Conclusion
8. The importance of understanding policy reversal
Appendix of interviews conducted by author
References
Index.