In The Political and Social Construction of Poverty, Serena Romano provides an extremely comprehensive and thoughtful account of the changes in welfare provision and government attempts to deal with poverty in the Central and East European region from the Soviet period up to the contemporary period. Eleanor Bindman concludes that this volume will be of interest to both academics and domestic and international policymakers concerned with the persistent problems of welfare reform, poverty and social exclusion in Europe

Bindman, Eleanor

LSE Research Online

2014-6-13Book Review: The Political and Social Construction ofPoverty: Central and East European countries in transitionby Serena Romanoblogs.lse.ac.uk /lsereviewofbooks/2014/06/13/book-review-the-political-and-social-construction-of-poverty-european-countries-romano/In The Political and Social Construction of Poverty, Serena Romano provides an extremelycomprehensive and thoughtful account of the changes in welfare provision and governmentattempts to deal with poverty in the Central and East European region from the Soviet period up tothe contemporary period. Eleanor Bindman concludes that this volume will be of interest to bothacademics and domestic and international policymakers concerned with the persistent problems ofwelfare reform, poverty and social exclusion in Europe. The Political and Social Construction of Poverty: Central and East European countries intransition. Serena Romano. Policy Press. January 2014.Find this book:   In the aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008 and the imposition ofdramatic changes to welfare provision in a number of European countries aspart of the subsequent adoption of ‘austerity’ programmes for public spending,there has perhaps never been a better time to explore the changing nature ofthe welfare state in those Central and East European countries which havemoved from Communist systems of state welfare based on full employment tovarying models which are now much more in line with those maintained by theirfellow EU member states.Serena Romano’s volume on Central and East European welfare systems andtheir attempts to deal with poverty in the years since the collapse of Communismin the region in 1989 seeks to explore this relatively under-researched area. Itprovides both a comprehensive account of the welfare models which existed inHungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, and Slovenia, and ofthe significant changes that they have undergone in the post-Communist period, which includes the process leadingup to accession to the European Union in 2004 and the challenging years following the EU’s eastern enlargement.By focusing more specifically on the issue of poverty both before and after the collapse of Communism and thevarious attempts by governments to tackle this problem (which exploded as a consequence of radical economicreforms in the region such as the infamous ‘shock therapy’ approach), Romano shows us how poverty as a problemis socially and politically constructed, as are the purported solutions to it. In taking this approach she argues thatideas, norms, and values exert a major influence over policy formulation, delivery, and the identification of thosegroups deemed to be either ‘deserving’ or ‘undeserving’ of state social support.The early sections of the book examine the type of welfare provision available in Central and Eastern Europe duringthe post-war Communist period, while drawing attention to the fact that all of the countries used here as casestudies had extensive systems of social insurance, family allowances, and pension provision which not only pre-dated the Communist era but were put in place often many years ahead of other, supposedly more ‘advanced’nations in Western Europe. While the Communist regimes which were established in the region introduced theirown, extensive forms of social security which were designed to eliminate the problem of poverty once and for all,1/3Romano points out that the total reliance on full employment and workplace-based distribution of social goods andbenefits and the absence of civil and political rights meant that those who for whatever reason were unable to workwere divided into the categories of the ‘deserving’ poor (i.e. those with physical disabilities which prevented themfrom working) and ‘undeserving’ poor (those who were able-bodied but unemployed and therefore denounced as‘parasites’).Photo 68 by Marius Mhler, from the 2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion project. Credit: DGEMPL CC BY-NC-SA 2.0Indeed, as Romano highlights, the Communist maxim that ‘he who does not work, does not eat’ with its emphasis onindividual responsibility and the importance of work has a number of overlaps with the growth in popularity inWestern Europe and North America from the late 1980s onwards of ‘workfare’ programmes which sanction thoseperceived to be too reluctant to take up paid work and the related political discourse on unemployment and povertywhich emphasises individual rather than state responsibility for ensuring one’s social needs are met. At the sametime, while significant poverty and social inequality persisted under these Communist regimes, it was virtuallyimpossible to discuss these issues since to admit they existed would be to question the success and legitimacy ofthe regimes themselves and those who did live in poverty became increasingly stigmatised or simply ignored by thestate, attitudes which were to shape the way in which post-Communist elites and societies also came to see theseproblems in subsequent years.As Romano points out, the collapse of the Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989 and theradical economic, political, and social changes which followed meant that most elements of the soviet socialcontract – which relied upon full employment, employment-linked social security coverage, and the allocation ofsubsidised goods – were abandoned, leading to a dramatic decline in living standards and an explosion in levels ofpoverty and unemployment in the region. Yet the decision to pursue EU membership and seek advice on economicreform from international organisations such as the World Bank and IMF in the early to mid-1990s brought norespite. While the World Bank insisted that these countries’ relatively extensive social security systems be cut backand brought into line with a market economy, the EU either ignored the issues of poverty and social exclusion inthese ‘transition’ countries or made recommendations for ‘streamlining’ these systems into a more basic socialsafety net which were broadly in line with those of the international financial institutions and privileged economicintegration over social cohesion. More recently, the financial crisis of 2008 has brought fresh challenges to welfareprovision and levels of employment in both old and new EU member states with consequences that are stillunravelling.Overall, Romano provides an extremely comprehensive and thoughtful, if at times a little repetitive, account of thechanges in welfare provision and government attempts to deal with poverty in the region from the Soviet period up2/3to the contemporary period, with all six of the countries she uses as case studies now established members of theEuropean Union. It is clear from her account that the experience of the soviet model of welfare provision and theimpact of its collapse has shaped, and in many respects continues to shape, both elite and public attitudes towardsthe state’s obligations in this area, those who receive social security payments, and those who live in poverty. WhileRomano focuses on Central and Eastern Europe, much of what she says has great relevance in terms of socialpolicy developments in those countries which were part of the Soviet Union, such as Russia, and for the EuropeanUnion in terms of how it continues to influence the development of a ‘social model’ in its own member states but alsoin its ‘Wider Neighbourhood’ which includes countries such as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. As a result, thisvolume will be of interest to both academics and domestic and international policymakers concerned with thepersistent problems of welfare reform, poverty and social exclusion in Europe.———————————-Eleanor Bindman is a third-year PhD researcher in Politics at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses onthe EU’s human rights policy in relation to Russia, with other research interests including contemporary Russianpolitics, international relations and social policy. She previously studied Russian language, history and politics at theuniversities of Edinburgh and London and in 2010 worked as an intern for the Commissioner for Human Rights atthe Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Prior to starting her PhD she worked as a research assistant for Human RightsWatch in Moscow and has also worked as a freelance translator for several years. Read more reviews by Eleanor.Copyright 2013 LSE Review of Books3/3

Book review: the political and social construction of poverty: central and East European countries in transition by Serena Romano

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

LSE Research Online