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This article argues for setting a research agenda to investigate more concretely the interplay between welfare attitudes and support for populist parties. ; This article argues for setting a research agenda to investigate more concretely the interplay between welfare attitudes and support for populist parties.

La question qui nous intéresse est la suivante : comment les systèmes de protection sociale peuvent-ils en même temps relever le défi du développement économique sur le long terme, lequel implique de nouvelles dépenses sociales et de répondre à la demande permanente d'austérité ? Cette exigence de contrainte fiscale a encore été accrue récemment par la crise financière et économique. La stratégie d'investissement social peut-elle être une solution ? Cet article examine la stratégie d'investissement social de la République tchèque pendant et après la crise. Nous nous intéresserons aux secteurs les plus pertinents du point de vue des investissements sociaux, à savoir l'éducation, les politiques actives du marché du travail (PAMT), l'accueil des jeunes enfants, l'aide aux familles (y compris la garantie d'un revenu minimum) et le logement. Les travaux montrent que le programme d'investissement social mis en place par l'Union européenne (UE) en 2013 n'a eu aucun effet sur le discours politique en République tchèque. Néanmoins, malgré le rééquilibrage budgétaire et la réduction des dépenses publiques intervenus depuis, on observe des signes de changement dans la conception des stratégies d'investissement social dans ce pays. Parmi les facteurs de ce changement, nous pouvons citer les attentes en matière de productivité, les pressions et les financements de l'UE, ainsi que des changements intervenus dans les politiques nationales.

Current demographic and social changes in (post)modern societies present new challenges to social policy in the form of a new and deepening social and economic imbalance – they are sometimes referred to as 'new social risks' – and among the direct consequences of these new risks is the phenomenon of social exclusion. In response to these challenges, European agendas for employment and for social inclusion, are being implemented. These guidelines are set out in programme documents such as National Action Plans for Employment (since 2005 National Reform Programmes) and National Action Plans for Social Inclusion. Given that the Method of Open Coordination is a rather 'soft instrument', specific implementation of these agendas in European countries is dependent on many aspects of the national context. In this article, we aim to describe the specifics of the Czech Republic's approach to the problems of social exclusion. We will first explore the emphasis laid on the new risks in Czech social policy measures and attempt to draw comparisons with other EU countries. Next, we will also pay attention to the Czech approach to the agenda for social inclusion, which is among the key agendas in this area.

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Since the fall of the communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, neoliberal discourse has dominated among the political elite in the post-communist countries, paving the way for unprecedented mass privatisation, economic deregulation, and other market reforms. In this paper, we study the development of public support for market economy principles in post-communist countries compared to other European countries during the 1999-2008 period, which is the period that directly followed the initial stage of market transformation. We use data from the European Value Survey covering 22 European countries for the years 1999/2000 and 2008/2009. In addition to analysing the trends, we apply multilevel regression models to study the determinants and levels of support for the market economy in post-communist and other European countries. We find that, when controlling for individual and country-level variables, a significant increase in support for market economy principles has taken place in the post-communist cluster, which is not the case in the other countries. There is some inconsistency in support for the individual principles of market economics: support exists in post-communist countries for the notion that the state should be responsible for the social and economic well-being of its inhabitants and for state regulation of the economy, while support is high for some market economy principles, such as free competition and private ownership. In other words, support for some kind of social market seems to dominate the views of those living in post-communist countries, in which the state should combine a market economy with relatively generous social policies.

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 de.

AbstractThis article evaluates a national project for the integration of long‐term unemployed and disadvantaged groups of jobseekers implemented in the Czech Republic since 2019. It discusses how individual work and active labour market policy measures for these groups have changed, and what the outcomes were. We combined a quantitative evaluation of the targeting and outcomes of the measures with a qualitative evaluation of changes in the project implementation through semi‐structured interviews and focus group discussions conducted at the Labour Office branches. The findings show the need to broaden the availability of hard measures such as private‐sector placement subsidies for the most disadvantaged jobseekers, and to improve soft measures (counselling and training), especially if front‐line workers do not have sufficient competences for individual work. We are cautious about generalising the findings, as the pandemic complicated the implementation of soft measures.

AbstractIn this paper, we analyze the targeting and outcomes of the apprenticeship program implemented under the Youth Guarantee/YG scheme in the Czech Republic. We examine the outcomes and targeting using counterfactual impact evaluation (quasi‐experimental design) of the apprenticeship program on the basis of administrative data from the Czech Employment Office. The implementation strategy is analyzed using various policy documents. The findings indicate that the program is apparently targeted at those groups of young people who are less disadvantaged as regards education level and previous unemployment experience. At the same time, paradoxically, the effects in terms of outflows from the unemployment register are weak for the short‐term and medium‐term unemployed, as well as for low‐skilled and high‐skilled youth, and stronger effects are evident in the case of long‐term unemployed and medium‐skilled youth. The failures in targeting and in adjusting the program to the needs of more vulnerable groups of youth are due to an inconsistent implementation strategy of Czech Public Employment Services.