Political Economy of Social Welfare Reform: The Parliamentary Election of 1996 in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic, like most of the other CEE countries, inherited a centralized ‘state paternalistic’ system of social welfare from an earlier communist regime. An egalitarian pension system, highly subsidized prices for housing, energy, transportation and food, free health care and easily accessible education up through university education, generous social benefits for children and families, full employment guaranteed by the state, all of this together with a relatively modest taxation of private income came to be regarded as the standard basis for the modus operandi by the majority of the Czech citizens. While subject to criticism for the low quality of health services and privileged access for certain relatively small social groups (for example, state and party nomenclature, security forces), the system as a whole had not been questioned by dissident circles and (except for social net issues related to unemployment and inflation, introduced in 1990 and 1991) had not become a priority item on the political agenda during the first two years of economic and political transition after 1989.