The Generosity of Social Policies in Socialist and Post-Socialist States

This open access book maps and compares national social policies of socialist and post-socialist countries, examining designs, implementation, and outcomes. It analyses how the generosity of social policies – understood as the combination of their inclusiveness and the scope of benefits they offer – has been conceptualised in different socialist and post-socialist national contexts, how these conceptualisations have shaped the content of social policies, and finally, how the content of social policies has actually been implemented. Thus, the contributions include the ideational, de jure and de facto aspects of social policy in socialist and post-socialist contexts. Andreas Heinrich is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy”, University of Bremen, Germany. Monika Ewa Kaminskais a political scientist and was, at the time of the writing, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Research Center for Inequality and Social Policy SOCIUM and Principal Investigator at the Collaborative Research Center 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy”, University of Bremen, Germany. Heiko Pleines is Professor of Comparative Politics, based at the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen, Germany. He is also Principal Investigator of a research project on Eastern Europe at the Collaborative Research Centre 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy”. Tobias ten Brink is Professor of Chinese Economy and Society at Constructor University and Principal Investigator at the Collaborative Research Center 1342 “Global Dynamics of Social Policy”, Constructor University Bremen, Germany.