Introduction -- The unexpected peacefulness of transitions -- Political quiescence despite conditions for conflict -- Preventing protests: divide and pacify as political strategy -- The great abnormal pensioner booms: strategic social policies in practice -- Peaceful pathways: the political...

I discuss the use of power to safeguard political stability by policymakers in four post-communist cases: Hungary and Poland, and Estonia and Latvia. My treatment is in line with traditional path dependency and 'generous' or 'emergency' welfare state interpretations, but adds a more strategic...

"This book adopts novel theoretical approaches to study the diverse welfare pathways that have been evolving across Central and Eastern Europe. Beyond existing path dependency and neo-institutionalist explanations, it highlights the role of explanatory factors such as micro-causal mechanisms,...

This essay contributes towards the development of an analytical political sociology analysis of post-communist policy pathways and applies this by reinterpreting the social policy pathways taken by Hungary and Poland. At the critical historical juncture of the early 1990s, governments in these...

Over the past few decades, all affluent democracies have been coping with two major new trends: population aging, and new social risks resulting from de-industrialization. How have these trends, and their timing, affected welfare spending within and between countries? We investigate up to 21...

Families and policies both are main vehicles of intergenerational transfers. Working-age people are net contributors; children and older persons net beneficiaries. However, there is an asymmetry in socialization. Working-age people pay taxes and social security contributions to institutionalize...

Accelerated population aging and high voting turnout rates among elderly voters in recent decades have led many social scientists to predict increasing pro-elderly biases in the social policies of mature welfare states. This article investigates and empirically estimates the evolving age...

The role of the ‘Big Five’ personality traits in driving welfare state attitudes has received scant attention in social policy research. Yet neuroticism in particular – a disposition to stress, worry and get nervous easily – is theoretically likely to be an important driver of welfare...