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The era of “The State should give me” must end
Written by icostachi
Imagine the public budget as a big cake. The biggest slices cover expenses for pensions, education, unemployment benefits, medical insurance, social assistance, etc. Together they make up the components of the welfare state on which we rely so much. If one slice of the cake gets bigger, the other pieces […]
Read all posts for ‘post-communism’
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The higher the expectations, the deeper the disappointment
Written by Andreea Vasile
The beauty of childhood is its lack of expectations Photo credit: Powerhouse Museum Collection Every year, on the 25th of December, everybody in Romania celebrates Christmas. But some Romanians also use the occasion to commemorate the former communist president, Nicoale Ceaușescu. They gather at the Ghencea Cemetry and in front […]
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Welfare States – too good for too long?
Written by Daniel Vekony
As societies in Europe become older, Central European countries and EU member states as a whole need to find out if they want, and are able to sustain, the state welfare system inherited from the 20th century in a world of global competition. During the 1980s there was a proverb […]
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The democratic rollback in the post-communist region: a reply
Written by Artur Kacprzak
1. What do we mean by ‘Eastern Europe’? We should start the discussion by examining the terms we use. What is actually meant by “Central and Eastern Europe”? Does the term have a geographic, cultural, or political meaning? Whichever sense we chose, a clarified definition would help insiders and outsiders […]
