Contemporary Welfare Regimes in Baltic States: Adapting Post-Communist Conditions to Post-Modern Challenges

Abstract: "This article revises the conventional approach to welfare state development in the post-communist world, according to which the main challenge for the Eastern European states is to catch up with Western European welfare regimes. The article argues that adjustment to the new social risks and volatile markets is more important today than the catching-up scenario. Based on social and labour market statistics for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the article analyses how the Baltic States are coping with this adjustment challenge. Adaptation to the post-modern conditions can be regarded as successful if the stability of welfare spending is accompanied by the expanding and flexible employment and by the stable or decreasing level of poverty. The findings suggest that the opportunities to increase the flexibility and equality of the labour market provided by the breakdown of the communist regime were not used. Instead, the Baltic welfare states continue to focus on protecting against the o

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Veröffentlichungsversion ; begutachtet (peer reviewed) ; In: Studies of Transition States and Societies ; 2 (2010) 2 ; 31-44

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Mannheim
• (when): 2010
• Creator: Toots, Anu ; Bachmann, Janika

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-369660
• Rights: Open Access unbekannt; Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 15.08.2025, 7:30 AM CEST