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• The Evolution of Welfare Systems: Social Democratic and Social Autocratic Paths

  46-65

  Imre Lévai

  Views:

  124

  Students of global and regional political economy have produced a vast literature on divergent paths of capitalist evolution. The evolution of welfare systems, in general, and their different paths, in particular, have also widely been analysed in economic and social studies. The author, joining the discussions from a world system perspective, makes an attempt at presenting a global and regional political economic comparison of the seemingly similar welfare systems that have evolved in Northern and in Eastern Europe. The apparent convergence of the Sovietic type to the Nordic social democratic pattern is scrutinised, distinguishing it from the latter by the “social autocratic” label.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) kód: I31, I38, P36, P38

• Analysis of Fiscal Policy in the Countries of the PaCifiCa

  109-126

  Andrea Postenyi

  Views:

  132

  Volatility has been a main factor in Latin America for decades, but these countries have managed to eliminate it more or less successfully by a series of reforms over the last few decades. Regional integrations have emerged in response to the challenges of globalisation. The most recently created integration is the PaCifiCa, and it is worth analyzing the current fiscal situation of its member states, which largely determines the success of future cooperation. Although the four countries observed managed to survive the 2007-2009 crisis with stable fundamentals, the downturn drew attention to the differences between these countries: while Chile and Peru are able to react easily to cyclical swings by applying countercyclical policy, the economies of Colombia and Mexico are much more vulnerable. The assessment of the welfare systems shows that although Chile has an extensive welfare system, the countries in the region still significantly lag behind the traditional concept of welfare state.

  Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) code: H50, H60

• The formation and development of employment law in the context of socio-economic processes

  63-88

  Tamas Prugberger

  Views:

  420

  The study explores the formation and development of the institutional system of employment law, in connection with socio-economic demands and economic, technical and technological developments. It demonstrates what factors play a role in the fact that the vast majority of companies, and the paternalistic working relationships that form within them, have been replaced by the patterns of big business and big business hierarchical culture. The study shows how the characteristic employment law framework of classical capitalism, which was emplyer-friendly and placed anti-social pressure on the interests of the employee, gave way to the philosophy of the social market and was influenced by the employee-friendly concepts of the welfare state. The article further analyses those social factors which in today's employment law system have once again started to subordinate the interests of the employee to those of the employer.

• Reflections on the Role of Institutions on the Chinese Road to a Market Economy

  49-82

  Laszlo Csaba

  Views:

  114

  At the onset of transformation there has been a close to consensus view that the market system has no alternative. While this insight has found its place in the current mainstream on development economics, the so-called Washington consensus or post-Washington consensus (Kolodko, 2000, pp.119-141 andpp. 348-356; and Williamson, J, 2000, Srinivasan, T.N.,2000), very few would venture to repeat in an academic writing the once famous dictum of Vaclav Klaus: the third road leads to the third world. Much of western Europe has remained within the framework of the welfare state, despite its obvious limitations. Also in
  the transforming economies, the rollback of the state has proven to be much less than the tough normative language adopted by early reformers would have indicated. Actually, it is the structure rather than the size of public spending in these countries that may be a source of social and economic strains by providing less than optimal conditions for sustaining economic growth.