Welfare regimes in Central and Eastern Europe: incorporating post-communist countries in a welfare regime typology

Abstract

This article uses hierarchical cluster analysis to empirically assess if the postcommunist welfare states of Central and Eastern Europe can be classified according to any of Esping-Andersen’s well-known welfare types, or if they form a distinct group of their own. It shows that at the start of the twenty-first century, there are clear differences in the governmental programmes and the social situation between traditional Western welfare states and post-communist welfare states. The article argues that the welfare states in post-communist countries might be subdivided into three groups: (1) a group of former-USSR countries, including Russia and Belarus; (2) a group of rather successful Central and Eastern European countries including Poland and the Czech Republic, and (3) a group of developing welfare states, consisting of Romania, Moldova and Georgia.