The Development of Social Spending in East Central Europe

Abstract

The overall aim of the paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of welfare state policies and expenditures of the East Central European (ECE) countries. The article collects the historical-institutional features of East Central European welfare states after transition and analyses the composition of welfare state spending. Since the outbreak of the financial crisis enforced welfare state retrenchment in the ECE region as well, recent developments play a key role in understanding the major features. The development of welfare services shows that the East Central European countries are at the very beginning of building a modern and efficient market-driven welfare state with several challenges ahead of them.