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In this paper we focus on the role of Europe in developing reconciliation policies in the Czech Republic from 1989 until 2009, with emphasis on the period before and after EU accession. We analyse the development of reconciliation policies like caring services, maternity and parental leave, and support for flexible working regimes, with a particular focus on the EU's influence. Finally, we discuss how the Czech case appears in relation to the 'world of compliance' with the EU. We argue that compliance with the EU has been rather weak: politicians and policy makers have preferred to continue in the pattern of re-familialism established mainly during the first transformation period ('World of Domestic Politics'). When confronted with the increasing pressure of the 'softness' of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), Czech decision-makers have turned their backs on them ('World of Rejection'). They have used Europe as a cognitive resource and rarely as a legitimating resource and have been very selective in searching for policies compatible with their preferences. Our study confirms the relevance of the misfit hypothesis, while the 'joining the club effect' has brought no more than formal adoption of soft legislation.

Abstract
In recent decades, populist parties and leaders have obtained great political success. Since populism plays on voter dissatisfaction with the political elite, we might expect that dissatisfaction with the welfare state should also play a role. In this study, we suggest measures to assess welfare state performance (WSP), and we examine how assessment of WSP helps to explain support for the populist political parties – both rightwing and leftwing. Our findings are based on the sixth round of European Social Survey data that has a special module on democracy, which includes questions that enables us to measure WSP. This article shows that WSP is a significant predictor in explaining support for populist parties, but the dynamics differ between how WSP influences support for leftwing populist (LWP) and rightwing populist (RWP) parties.

AbstractIn this article, we analyse how different governments have dealt with situations, labelled as 'crises' in the international and national discourses. More specifically, we analyse how the Czech, Hungarian and Slovak governments framed and dealt with their social policies during the 2008 'financial crisis', the 2015 'refugee crisis', and the 2020 'Covid crisis'. We argue that sometimes governments and the mass media frame the situation as a crisis, when objectively it would be hard to argue empirically that there really was a crisis. At other times, according to objective criteria, there is ample evidence that there is indeed a crisis, but the government tries to deny it for political reasons. Despite differences in objective conditions and differences in political constellations, none of the policymakers in the three countries took advantage of the windows of opportunity that the alleged crises presented to carry out path‐changing social policy? changes. Instead, the changes we rather small and usually only temporary; thus, showing the importance of path dependency even during crisis situations.

AbstractThis article analyses the developments of the welfare state's reaction to the pandemic in Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia during 2020–2022, asking whether the changes in social policy represent only temporary responses to the challenges of the pandemic, or if the changes will likely lead to long‐run transformative changes in social policies. All three countries applied emergency adaptive changes to some extent except for job protection, as the short‐time work schemes represent a permanent change in Czechia and Slovakia. Furthermore, the absorption capacity of the welfare state was relatively good, which enabled the countries to avoid the negative social impacts of the crisis in terms of increased unemployment, poverty, and social exclusion. We argue the governments did not introduce permanent third‐order change because they already introduced such changes during the transition to the market economy in which they introduced a low‐expenditure welfare state trajectory. During the pandemic, this trajectory limited their fiscal space for introducing reforms that could radically expand the welfare state. Policy learning and political constellations also had some influence.

This article tests several hypotheses for explaining the link between welfare-state performance and satisfaction with democracy. In conducting our multilevel analysis, we combine data from the European Social Survey 2012 special module on democracy with data on contextual and institutional conditions, including those on welfare-state regimes. Our results show that a discrepancy between desired policy goals and perceived policy outcomes in connection with the welfare state (i.e. the policy deficit) influences citizens' perceptions of how well democracy in their country works. Social policies which citizens see as reducing poverty correlate positively with satisfaction with democracy. We also find evidence that satisfaction with democracy depends on the type of welfare regime, as well as on changes in economic conditions that arise due to financial crisis.

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.

EU member states have seen high levels of unemployment in recent years especially amongst young people. At the same time the fiscal crisis of welfare states has made it difficult for them to invest in new jobs and new economic growth. The EU, at least since the enactment of the Amsterdam treaty, has had a focus on how to support member states' development of an employment policy which aims for higher levels of participation, lower levels of unemployment and more gender equal approaches. Through exploring patterns in the recent development of financing and governance of social services and developments of social services and employment in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany and the UK, this volume provides readers with new knowledge and evidence of the options regarding social innovation in social services. Furthermore, it provides a comparative European perspective on how the interplay between a public and private mix of social service on the one hand might help in creating jobs, and, on the other, be a way of coping with the needs and expectations of higher level of services in the core areas of the welfare state

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to deal with the question of whether the expectations of improved effects due to governance reforms have been met in nine European Union (EU) countries and how they are associated with the specific characteristics of the governance of activation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper distinguishes three types of effect: first, the process effects, like the treatment of unemployed people, their voice and choice when involved in activation and the individualized nature of the service provision process. Second, the paper looks at output effects (policy effort), which include the range (scope) and variety of the programs, the coverage and outreach (targeting) of programs and services to specific groups and service content and quality. Last, the paper is interested in the outcome/employment effects (gross and net) on job placement.FindingsThe authors conclude that the effects of the governance reforms are not unequivocally in favour of the reforms. This is a remarkable finding since all the countries that have been studied show similarities and to some extent converging trends in activation reforms. The reasons for this discrepancy between aims and effects are not easy to detect; nevertheless, implementation difficulties are one explanation and problems with adequate financing may be another.Originality/valueThe complex model of the effects of activation is combined with a governance perspective. This makes it possible to disentangle the effects of governance reforms to some extent. The findings may stimulate further research and orient policy making in activation.