The Political Economy of Fiscal Reform in Central-Eastern Europe, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic from 1989 to EU Accession by Frank Bönker (review)

Abstract

l86 SEER, 87, I, JANUARY 2009 men have a marginal position in the household, theironly function being that of breadwinner, so that men who lose their jobs or who are unable to earn enough to support theirfamilies sufferfrom a loss of social statusboth atwork and in the home, risking a precipitous decline intodemoralization and, all too often, alcoholism. Third, social networks are decisive in getting a job, and although household exchange networks are centred on women and women's networks are more robust, men's networks are generally more advantageous in getting a job than those of women, because it ismen who tend to take hiring decisions and men's networks tend to be both male-centred and work centred. There is therefore an indication, though no conclusive evidence, that social networks provide important moral support for women, but do not compensate for the other disadvantages thatwomen face in the labour market. This book provides an indispensable resource for understanding employ ment behaviour inRussia's labour market, but its careful analysis of gender differences also provides much more than this, an invaluable insight into the ways inwhich men and women struggle to survive the vicissitudes of life in contemporary Russia. Department ofSociology Simon Clarke Universityof Warwick Bonker, Frank. The Political Economy ofFiscal Reform in Central-Eastern Europe, Hungary, Poland and theCzech Republicfrom 1989 toEU Accession. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham and Northampton, MA, 2006. xi + 203 pp. Tables. Notes. Bibliography. Index. ?59.95. In this book Frank Bonker addresses post-Communist fiscal reform from a Political Economy of Policy Reform, or PEPR, perspective. PEPR focuses on the economic and political conditions for the initiation and consolidation of policy reforms.He uses the three case studies ofHungary, Poland and the Czech Republic from 1989 to theirEU accession as his empirical base. Whilst the case studies themselves provide a concise and informative read, as a whole the book disappoints on a number of fronts. Firstly the case study material is now rather dated. As Bonker openly admits the book has had a long gestation period, as did his doctoral thesis on which thisvolume isbased, due to 'other projects and rival obligations' (p. x). Nothing wrong with this per se but with the overwhelming majority of referenced material coming from before 2000 one needs to question the contribution to PEPR analysis today from these three case studies. Secondly, the book wanders, as has the author, between economics and political science. Again, nothing wrong with thisper se but the reader is left confused as towhat to draw from the case studies. Are we supposed to gain insights on PEPR when applied to fiscal reforms in other OECD countries or are we supposed to gain a deeper understanding of the post-Communist reforms in the case study countries by applying a PEPR perspective? This reader was never quite sure. REVIEWS 187 Thirdly, and I believe most disappointingly, the issue of fiscal reform is never appropriately separated from the post-Communist transformation process itself. Needless to say thiswould be a major challenge but one worth even partial success. The three case studies themselves highlight the significant differences in economic and political circumstances between the three coun tries at the time of political change and fiscal reform.Yet attempts are made to provide generalized conclusions about fiscal reform in Central-Eastern Europe. This is a pity as itdemeans the helpful and readable analyses of the fiscal changes drawn out in each of the individual case-study chapters. By the timewe reach the concluding chapter the author himself seems to have accepted thathis analyses of the fiscalchanges in the case-study countries are from a historical, political economy perspective. There is no attempt to draw from the experiences of these three countries any lessons for PEPR methodology or forprevious PEPR conclusions. As such thisbook reads as a very dated, Western-based perspective on the excitement of the early 1990s in Central and Eastern Europe. As the author admits, 'fiscal reform was not driven primarily by fiscal problems but was essentially a by-product of the transition to capitalism' (p. 160).The book would have been somuch more valuable if this had been the opening sentence and the author had analysed...