The revenge of history: the institutional roots to post-communist family policy in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland
Abstract
The authors combine historical and sociological institutional analysis to investigate how family policies developed in four Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. They argue that despite the political and socioeconomic transformation in 1990s, the institutional development during and before the communist era provides the best explanation for current family policies in the region.
Their article goes against the mainstream literature on path-dependency by arguing that decisions that send countries down important paths of policy making do not need to be decisions that appeared to be important at the time they were taken. They identify four critical junctures that were decisive in setting the four countries down their current paths of development, the relatively conservative paths in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the relatively liberal path in Poland, and the most generous path in Hungary.
These critical junctures include the incorporation of the two-tier model of separate care for younger and older pre-school children in late 1800s, the decision in 1930s/1940s to place kindergartens for children 3-5 under the Ministry of Education, the decision in 1950s to place nurseries for children under three under the Ministry of Health, and the decision in 1960s to introduce extended maternity leaves.