Bankers and populists: understanding the rise of ‘managerial developmentalism’ in Poland

The resignation of Zbigniew Jagiełło as the CEO of Poland’s largest bank has raised questions about political interference in the country’s financial sector. Marek Naczyk writes that while most of this discussion has focused on the actions of the current Law and Justice government, it is equally important to understand the role that bankers have played in shaping Polish economic policy

Populist party-producer group alliances and divergent developmentalist politics of minimum wages in Poland and Hungary

In the advanced peripheral economies of East-Central Europe, right-wing populist parties have increasingly politicized the dualism between larger, export-competitive foreign-owned enterprises and smaller, inward-oriented and less productive domestically owned firms. By focusing on the two most-similar cases of right-wing populist governments in the region—namely, Hungary and Poland, this paper documents a striking attempt by Poland’s Law and Justice party to use increases in the minimum wage and social security contributions as a developmentalist tool that should force domestically owned firms to achieve greater efficiency and technological upgrading. In sharp contrast, Hungary’s Fidesz party has systematically compensated minimum wage increases with cuts in employer social contributions and has refrained from assigning developmentalist aims to labor cost increases. Both parties have cultivated a cross-class electoral base and have faced electoral trade-offs in emphasizing minimum wage increases. Yet we argue—and show through a comparative historical analysis—that variation in their policy approaches stems from their distinct, electorally motivated, alliances with influential producer groups and the distinct policy quid pro quos they have struck with those groups, namely, organized labor for Law and Justice and organized business for Fidesz

ASISP Annual National Report 2013: Pensions, Health and Long-Term Care. France

Executive Summary Pension reform has again been high on the political agenda in France in 2013. In the winter of 2013-2014, the Ayrault government introduced a new pension reform which included: an increase in employee and employer contributions, a gradual increase in the minimum contribution required for a full pension from 41.5 years for people born in 1955 to 43 years for people born in 1973, the creation of a personal account for the prevention of hard working conditions (compte personnel de prévention de la pénibilité) as well as a series of changes aimed at improving pension adequacy for women, youths and workers employed in non-standard forms of employment. Despite these compensatory measures and despite suggestions by recent official reports that replacement rates cannot be expected to decline dramatically in the future, this new reform will make it harder for workers to reach the minimum contribution period required to get a full pension. Both the official projections of replacement rates and the government’s calculations about the long-term financial situation of public pension schemes are based on very optimistic macro-economic assumptions (for example regarding the level of growth and of unemployment). It is clear that more reforms will be needed in the future. Promoting longer working lives should be a priority both in order to ensure the sustainability and the adequacy of pensions. In this context, it would seem reasonable to increase the statutory retirement age – and reform it by transforming it into a flexibile, and not a minimum, retirement age – so as to send a clear signal both to employers and employees that they will need to work longer. In 2012 and 2013, there has not been any important reform of the French Health care system, since the most important reform was adopted in 2009 (loi HPST) and since the government was concentrated on the pension reform in 2013. Moreover, deficits have started to decrease in the health care sector, thus leading to no important measures in that field. In Summer 2013, the government has launched a collective discussion on “National Health strategy” that will be presented in Summer 2014. In late 2013, some decisions have been taken regarding pharmaceutical goods on one hand, and aiming at increasing resources on the other. While LTC has been a central topic in the political debate for many years now, and while there have been many promises made to reform the LTC system in order to find a sustainable mode of financing and a simplified mode of governance, the reforms have been continuously postponed and a clear consensus on the mode of financing has yet to emerge. The government elected in 2012 has announced that long-term care would be one of its priorities, and that a reform would be undertaken to better cover the needs of the dependent elderly. Three reports have been published since then, but no major decision have been decided yet, except for an increase in tax paid by retired people, supposedly aimed at finaincing LTC

ASISP Annual National Report 2010: Pensions,Health and Long-Term Care. France

This report reflects the views of its authors and these are not necessarily those of either the European Commission or the Member States

ASISP Annual National Report 2009: Pensions,Health and Long-Term Care. France

2009 has not been marked by important legislative changes in the French pension system. The main measure legislated in the largest statutory scheme – the régime general – has been a reform of the pension bonuses offered to compensate women for maternity. However, the political debate around pension reform has continued to be very lively and a negotiation about a reform of statutory pension schemes is set to take place as from April 2010 and could lead to legislative changes in autumn 2010 (...)

The Ins and Outs of Dualisation: A Literature Review

The Working Papers on the Reconciliation of Work and Welfare in Europe are published online by the Publication, Dissemination and Dialogue Centre (PUDIAC) of RECWOWE.Outsiders, the underclass, the working poor, the socially excluded, the dis-advantaged are all terms that point to what is deemed to be a key characteristic of post-industrial societies, i.e. increasing inequalities and the growth of a group of people who are at risk of finding themselves at a permanent disadvantage in the labour market and in other spheres of social activity. This article aims at providing a systematic overview of the empirical and theoretical literature on the growth of a population of outsiders in European societies and in America, a development that has been labelled dualisation. Throughout the paper, we will study three potential dimensions of exclusion. First, we look at individuals position in the labour market. Second, we study individuals status in terms of social protection and, finally, we examine which effect the first two dimensions may have on individuals political behaviour, attitudes and capacity to be represented by political organisations

Complementing or replacing old age insurance? The growing importance of funded pensions in the French pension system

Part of the Working Papers on the Reconciliation of Work and Welfare in Europe seriesThe French pension system has for long been characterised by its very low reliance on funded pensions, which have almost become a taboo subject since the Second World War. While other countries have often complemented statutory pensions with funded occupational pension schemes, in France, the social partners have put in place an encompassing network of supplementary pension arrangements financed on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) basis. The generosity of these schemes and their defence by trade unions and part of the business community has considerably limited the room for expansion of funded pension schemes. However, the role played by these supplementary PAYG schemes has significantly changed over the last two decades. First, the gradual harmonization of rules within the different schemes and their compliance with EU social security regulations are leading to their quasi “first-pillarization”. Second, similar to statutory pensions, these schemes have also undergone gradual retrenchment and will offer reduced replacement rates. As a result, the development of pension savings has been implicitly promoted, although more on a voluntary basis than on a compulsory one. Despite a unification in the regulatory framework governing funded – occupational and personal – pension plans, access to these schemes remains mostly limited to high-skilled workers

A perfect storm : COVID-19 and the reorganisation of the German meat industry

First published online: 13 May 2022An advocacy coalition of trade unions, churches and NGOs had been trying for a long time to mobilise domestic media and politicians in order to re-regulate the German meat industry. The meat industry’s low-cost business model, using employee posting and subcontracting on a massive scale, has led to extreme forms of unsafe working and poor living conditions for large numbers of Central and Eastern European workers. But it is only in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that the German government decided to ban subcontracting, posting and temporary work in this industry. Why did COVID-19 make a difference? In an industry in which the livelihoods of local communities in Germany’s pig belt and in deprived rural parts of Romania have become structurally dependent on subcontracting, institutional change would not have happened without the pre-existing mobilisation of the above-mentioned advocacy coalition. But COVID-19 created a ‘perfect storm’ that empowered this coalition by helping reframe the meat industry issue away from a ‘narrow’ employment regulation problem into a ‘broader’ public health threat. Indeed, after becoming a virus hotspot, the meat industry was no longer just a threat to the livelihoods of its own workers, but to those of the wider local community

The financial industry and pension privatization in Europe:: shareholder capitalism triumphant?

The thesis examines the political dynamics behind the contemporary trend towards pension privatization in Europe. Its aim is to develop a theoretical model that can explain not only why governments have increasingly replaced their public pay-as-you-go systems with private fully-funded schemes, but also why there is considerable diversity both in the extent and in the content of pension privatization. Private pension funds can indeed be governed by a variety of institutional arrangements and can have very different types of links with the financial system. They do not necessarily contribute to a financialization of the economy. The thesis takes issue with the idea that pension privatization would be primarily the result of a new pensions orthodoxy promoted by international organizations such as the World Bank or of an electoral strategy that consists in attracting the votes of the middle class. I argue that the driving force behind the more or less dramatic rise of funded pensions in Europe is a series of lobbying campaigns launched by the financial industry, and their varying influence. Financial firms have a vested interest in the development of a market in private pensions, which should profit them as an industry. However, pension reform is an issue that matters to voters and can therefore prove dangerous for party politicians. Moreover, it involves complex changes that directly affect key material interests of employers and workers. In this context, the success of financial firms’ campaign for pension privatization depends on their capacity to forge alliances with a variety of actors. This in turn contributes to limit the influence financiers can exert. The argument is tested using a comparative historical analysis of pension debates in the United Kingdom, France and Poland since the beginning of the 1980s

The financial industry and pension privatization in Europe:

The thesis examines the political dynamics behind the contemporary trend towards pension privatization in Europe. Its aim is to develop a theoretical model that can explain not only why governments have increasingly replaced their public pay-as-you-go systems with private fully-funded schemes, but also why there is considerable diversity both in the extent and in the content of pension privatization. Private pension funds can indeed be governed by a variety of institutional arrangements and can have very different types of links with the financial system. They do not necessarily contribute to a financialization of the economy. The thesis takes issue with the idea that pension privatization would be primarily the result of a new pensions orthodoxy promoted by international organizations such as the World Bank or of an electoral strategy that consists in attracting the votes of the middle class. I argue that the driving force behind the more or less dramatic rise of funded pensions in Europe is a series of lobbying campaigns launched by the financial industry, and their varying influence. Financial firms have a vested interest in the development of a market in private pensions, which should profit them as an industry. However, pension reform is an issue that matters to voters and can therefore prove dangerous for party politicians. Moreover, it involves complex changes that directly affect key material interests of employers and workers. In this context, the success of financial firms’ campaign for pension privatization depends on their capacity to forge alliances with a variety of actors. This in turn contributes to limit the influence financiers can exert. The argument is tested using a comparative historical analysis of pension debates in the United Kingdom, France and Poland since the beginning of the 1980s.</p