Introduction and abolition of the second pillar of the pension system as a conflict between advocacy coalitions
Abstract
The diversification of pension pillars in many post-communist countries led to massive displacements of participant contributions from the public PAYG pension pillars to the newly constructed private, defined-contribution, fully-funded pillars. This pillar was also introduced in the Czech Republic in 2013.
The adoption of the relevant law was preceded by serious political conflict between supporters and opponents of this step (both among different political actors and among professionals). In an analysis of the conflict we critically apply the Advocacy Coalition Framework.
We work mainly with the analysis of policy documents, public statements of the individual actors and an analysis of voting on the relevant law in both chambers of the Czech Parliament towards the identification of the crystallization process of two clear-cut coalitions between actors from both sides of the spectrum. In the end of the contribution we discuss the possibilities and limitations of the Advocacy Coalition Framework in exploring the dynamics of the public-policy process.