General information
Code: P5-0193 AKM
Period: 4.4.2019
Project leader at FDV: prof.dr. Aleksandra Kanjuo-Mrčela
Research activity: Social sciences
Abstract
The research programme spans the broad topic of the transition from “real socialism” to a “market economy”, which overlaps the processes entailed in the Europeanisation of Central and Eastern European (CEE) “post-communist” societies and their transition to post-Fordism (Boyer: 2014). The programme’s underlying conceptual framework is the neo-institutional theory as defined within the VoC theory (Hall and Soskice, 2001) and adjusted by its critiques (Crouch: 2005; Streeck and Thelen, 2005). VoC sets out two ideal types of capitalism: a liberal market economy (LME) and a coordinated market economy (CME); in principle, it stresses the presence of “institutional complementarity” between social security systems, basic types of skills and companies’ prevailing market strategies, with qualitative differences being observed in this respect between these two types of capitalism. It resumes these complementarities within the “welfare-production regime” (WPR) concept (Estevez-Abe, Iversen and Soskice, 2001; Iversen, 2005).
In terms of VoC, “post-socialist” societies have largely adopted a liberal market economy. The abrupt political pluralisation of these societies was typically followed by a surge of rapid neo-liberal reforms whose results were often more radical than the results of the liberalisation of democratic capitalist societies. Put differently, the results were more neo-liberal than the outcomes of the neo-liberal reforms applied in western countries.
However, Slovenia was an exception. The specific features of Yugoslav socialism allowed it to embrace capitalism using an alternative approach; it was the only “post-socialist” country to be characterised by neo-corporatism already in the early stages of its transition (Bohle & Greskovits, 2007; 2012; Feldman, 2006). The system survived for at least more than 10 years until the mid-2000s, when changes to it began to fit more within the neo-liberal turn. Those changes were triggered by the country joining the EU in 2004 and the eurozone in 2007, further intensifying during the crisis during 2009–2013.
Our research project’s key goal is to explain the genesis of the changes occurring in the Slovenian system, recent developments in the context of the latest European (dis)integration processes, and the general rise of globalisation-related pressures. Relying on past research findings and the starting points outlined above, the research team will continue to focus on the study of “institutional (non)complementarity”, i.e. changes in the welfare-production regime in Slovenia. Within the broad field of institutional (non)complementarity, the team will examine three core issues: the question of (non)complementarity on the micro level (within and among firms and related stakeholders); the relatedness of those micro-relations to movements and splits in the labour market (flexibilisation and segmentation); strategic changes in interest-based (intermediary) organising and shaping the formation of public policies.
Research Organisation
https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/en/project/18102
Researchers
https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/en/project/18102
Citations for bibliographic records
https://cris.cobiss.net/ecris/si/en/project/18102
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