Populist Reforms in Hungary and Poland: Same Song, Different Melodies

Abstract

Populism is gaining ground in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and Hungary and Poland are the best examples of this trend. The Hungarian Orbán government and conservative Polish coalition led by Kaczyński (PiS), widely considered in the literature as populist, have been in power for some time now, which allows us not only to evaluate their labour law policies, but also the results. Though there are evident similarities between these two countries, such as political motivated layoffs in public employment or significant wage increases, the discrepancies are far more numerous. These differences result from each country’s specific socio-economic conditions and (almost) diametrically opposed political strategies with respect to employment matters. While Viktor Orbán believes in a workfare society, without social allowances and with flexibilized employment protection, in Poland PiS is pushing through a belated welfare revolution with expanded social benefits and employment rights. This article starts by describing populism as it has developed in Hungary and Poland in section 1, and the promises made by Orbán and Kaczyński before coming to power in section 2. Section 3 examines the main pillars of populist labour law policy, such as flexibilization, wages, collective rights, self-employment, social benefits and political motivated layoffs. Finally, we try to explain why and how these seemingly similar populist governments have adopted fundamentally different labour law reforms. labour law reforms, collective rights, flexibilization, Hungary, Poland