Europeanization, Welfare and Variegated Austerity Capitalisms – Hungary and Croatia

Abstract

This article focuses on the implications of understanding 'Europeanization' as a complex, dynamic and troubled translation process. It discusses post-communist welfare in the context of variegated forms of austerity capitalism in the EU. In particular, the complex relationships between modalities of welfare, the uneven development of neo-liberalisms and the multi-scalar restructuring of welfare assemblages, are discussed in the context of the reframing of relationships between the economic, the political and the social in a period of deep crisis and austerity. Post-communist Europe cannot be conceived as a flattened map or a singular regime type. Rather, diverse and often contradictory restructurings operate in different places at different times, and political agency continues to matter. Comparing and contrasting the changing relationships between neo-liberalism, authoritarian populism and ethnicized nationalism in Hungary and Croatia provides a more nuanced understanding of the variable geometries of transnational translations.

Politics of success stories in the path towards Universal Health Coverage: The case of Turkey

“…As they travel, policy ideas or tools are embedded in policy networks, which possess their own characteristics that shape their meaning and trajectories. Thus, many critical policy scholars prefer to analyse policy diffusion in terms of “assemblage” and “translation”—processes whereby ideas, discourses and frames are mediated through political processes (Clarke et al, 2015; Lendvai & Stubbs, 2015, p. 447; Peck & Theodore, 2015; Stone, 2012). This policy work takes place among the various global, regional, national and local levels, often causing melding or folding of various elements of policy when it is put into practice.…”

Introduction to the Handbook on Society and Social Policy

“…For example, the Hungarian welfare system under Viktor Orbán's Fidesz Party, has experienced significant spending cuts as the government has imposed strict, ethnically selective employment policies, which in conjunction with benefit reductions, confine the Roma population and other ethnic groups to poorly paid public works programmes. The system ensures further social segregation by imposing regressive tax measures and conserv- ative family policies that are principally designed to increase fertility rates among working families (Lendvai and Stubbs, 2015). Unsurprisingly, Hungary has experienced rising poverty rates and growing levels of inequality, not least gender inequality, which have led to increasing social polarization (Lendvai and Stubbs, 2015;Lugosi, 2018;Vidra, 2018).…”

“…The system ensures further social segregation by imposing regressive tax measures and conserv- ative family policies that are principally designed to increase fertility rates among working families (Lendvai and Stubbs, 2015). Unsurprisingly, Hungary has experienced rising poverty rates and growing levels of inequality, not least gender inequality, which have led to increasing social polarization (Lendvai and Stubbs, 2015;Lugosi, 2018;Vidra, 2018). Developments in Poland since the Law and Justice Party came to power in 2015 have been a little different.…”

European dis/integration in times of complexity – reassembling Europe in the 2014 protests and plenums in Bosnia and Herzegovina

“…Institutionally, SEE has been linked to the EU particularly since the outlining of the region's EU membership prospect at the 2003 Thessaloniki Summit, whereas Europeanisation process surpasses the institutional framework of EU accession through complex policy assemblages and encounters between multiple sites, scales, actors and discourses (Jansen, Brković, and Čelebičić 2016;Lendvai and Stubbs 2015). Particularly the EU's involvement in BiH and Kosovo exceeded the enlargement framework.…”