When do policies become path dependent? the Czech example

Abstract

This article asks the question of why some social policies can be path dependent, while others are not, even if the country goes through what clearly seems to be a ‘critical juncture’ caused by exogenous shocks. We argue that in the Czech Republic labour market policies represent a clear break with the past, while healthcare and family policies have been path dependent to various degrees. There are several reasons. First, during the first years of the transition policymakers gave greater priority to labour market issues. Second, labour market policies were less constrained than the other policy areas, both because the government had to create new institutions in this area rather than rely on old ones and because these new institutions had not yet built up popular support as the old institutions had. Third, labour policy was not as influenced by policy legacies.

Support for Market Economy Principles in European Post-communist Countries during 1999-2008

“…Second, some countries followed a 'divide and pacify' strategy [Vanhuysse 2006], which divided weaker social groups so as to hinder their ability to unite around their interests and protest against market reforms. Third, in policy areas with longer social policy traditions, such as family policy or health care, post-communist countries were bound by higher degrees of path dependency as there were greater entrenched interests and stronger policy legacies [Saxonberg et al 2013].…”

Effects of Soft Loans and Credit Guarantees on Performance of Supported Firms: Evidence from the Czech Public Programme START

“…Most of the recent studies in the Central and Eastern European region have been focused on the evaluation of cohesion R&D policies and those aimed at the elimination of the regional disparities, e.g., [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70], policies facilitating trainings and education [71,72] and effectivity of the self-employment programmes for the unemployed [73][74][75]. However, based on a search in the databases of previously published academic articles and research reports, no study has been focused on the evaluation of entrepreneurship support through the financial instruments yet.…”

Combining health insurance funds in a fragmented context: what kind of challenges should be considered?

“…Some of the political and executive challenges in different elements of our conceptual framework originate from factors with almost structural features. Facing such policies dependent strongly to the previous path in the following aspects such as legislative feasibility, structure, service delivery, and benefit package makes it more difficult to follow a new path radically different from the established path [39] even when it is generally accepted that those old policies may no longer be efficient [37]. For instance, it is not easy to change some laws in the Iranian health insurance policy due to legislative legacies and a strong historical path in these areas dating back to 1975 [39].…”