The Search for National Employment Policies in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

The nation-state is not dead and its raison d'être is far from over. On the contrary, the nation-state is searching for a new structure and is playing a crucial role in the transformation and modernization process. The examples of countries from central and eastern Europe demonstrate the importance of nation-state formation as a mediating factor during the current spate of economic and sacial changes. It provides the focal point for interest groups in society and more generally for external relations in the evolving global system of world capitalism. A problem in social science today is that there is too little critical research into how the nation-state and the capitalist market economy are interlinked, and how the former shapes the formation of welfare systems, labour institutions and labour market policies. Using the case study examples of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and to some extent the former GDR, the concept of a national solution to the transform. ation process will be examined in each country with respect to the search for an employment policy.