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.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Assmann, J. (1991) Die Katastrophe des Vergessens. Das Deutoronomium als Paradigma kulturelles Mnemotechnik, in A. Assmann and D. Hart (eds) Mnemosyne - Formen und Funktionen der kulturellen Erinnerung, Fischer Wissenschaft, Frankfurt am Main, pp. 337-55.
2.
Baglioni, G. and Crouch, C. (eds) (1989) European Industrial Relations: The Challenge of Flexibility, Sage, London.
3.
Baglioni, G. (1990) Trade union action and collective bargaining in Europe: trends and problems. Review of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations4(2), 185-99.
4.
Broklová, E. (1993) Czech and Slovaks 1918-1938, Czech Sociological Review1 (1): 23-42.
5.
Burke, P. (1991) Geschichte als soziales Gedächtnis, in A. Assmann and D. Hart (eds) Mnemosyne - Formen und Funktionen der kulturellen Erinnerung , Fischer Wissenschaft, Frankfurt am main, pp. 280-304.
6.
Bútorová, Z. (1993) A deliberate 'yes' to the dissolution of CSFR? The image of parties and the split of Czech-Slovakia in the eyes of the Slovak population, Czech Sociological Review1 (1): 58-72.
7.
Cooke, P. (1990) Nation, space, modernity, in R. Peet and N. Thrift (eds) New Models in Geography: The Political-economy Perspective, Unwin I Iyman, Boston, Mass., pp. 267-91.
8.
Dubeck, A. (1993) Viimeisenä kuolee tiovo (Hope dies last), WSOY, Juva.
9.
Economic Transformation and Employment in Hungary (1992) Report of Study Mission undertaken in the context of the ILO Project job founded by the Government of Japan, Geneva, 61 pp.
10.
Employment Developments in Central and Eastern Europe (1992) in Employment in Europe 1992, EC-Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs, pp. 107-24.
11.
Fajth, G. and Lakatos, J. (1993) Labour market policies and some aspects of long-term unemployment in Hungary, A report for OECD-Workshop on Persistence of Unemployment in Central and Eastern Europe, October, 24 pp.
12.
Graham, C. (1994) Safety nets and market transitions, Central European Business Weekly94.
13.
Habermas, J. (1990) Vergangenheit als Zukunft, Pendo-Verlag, Zurich.
14.
Harvey, D. (1993) From space to place and back again: reflections on the condition of postmodernity, in: J. Bird et al. (eds) Mapping the Futures: Local Cultures, Global Change, Roudege, London, pp. 3-29.
15.
Javorszky, I. (1989) Slovakian unkarilaisvähemmistön vaikea asema, Kanava 5, Helsinki, in Tshekkoslovakian unkarilaiset, Suomi-Unkari- seuran lehti 2/1991.
16.
Koistinen, P. (1992) Samettivallankumous ja ay-liike (The Velvet Revolution and the trade unions), Työelämän tulkimus38-10.
17.
Krovak, J. and Zamrazilova, E. (1992) The Czech Lands, Slovakia Economic Relation: Some EvidencePrague Economic papers, 2: 143-50.
18.
Kudermatch, M., (1993) Attitudes of Czech and Slovak local elite towards the transformation of society, Czech Sociological Review1 (1): 111-19.
19.
Kurz, R. (1993) Die Lichter des Markets verlöschenVom Ende der Defizitkonjunktur zur Weltwirtschaftskrise, Lettre International20: 37-43.
20.
Lado, M., Szalai, J. and Sziraczki, G. (1991) Recent Labour Market and Social Development in Hungary, ILO, OECD-CCEET, Paris.
21.
Lay, C. ( 1993) Aufholjagd endet in der Sackgasse. Die Kritik der ostdeutschen Soziologen an der 'nachholenden Modernisierung', Frankfurter Rundschau243 (19 October).
22.
Lévai, K. (1991) Towards a Reform of Social Policy in Hungary, Hamburger Institutfuer Sozialpolitik, Diskussionspapier 6, Hamburg.
23.
McDonnald, S. (ed.) (1993) Inside European Identities: Etnography in Western Europe, Berg , Oxford.
24.
Mueller, K. (1991) Nachholende Modernisierung? Die Konjunkturen der Modernisierungstherie und ihre Anwendung aud dieTransformation der osteuropäischen Gesellschaften, Leviathan2: 261-91.
25.
Mulhern, F. (1993) A European Home?, in J. Bird et al. (eds) Mapping the Futures: Local Cultures, Global Changes, Routlege, London , pp. 199-206.
26.
Newmann, L. (1992a) Labour relations of joint ventures in Hungary , unpublished manuscript, Research Institute of Labour , Budapest.
27.
Newmann, L. (1992b) Privatization from the trade union's point of view: chances for citizen's actions?, unpublished manuscript, Research Institute of Labour, Budapest.
28.
Offe, C. (1993) The Politics of Social Policy in East European Transitions: Antecedents, Agents and Agenda of Reform, Zentrum für Sozialpolitik, Arbeitspapier 2, Bremen.
29.
Oranstein, M. (1994) The velvet glove on the iron fist, Central European Business Weekly, 97.
30.
Pateman, C. (1989) The Disorder of Women: Democracy, Feminism and Political Theory, Stanford University Press, Stanford, Calif.
31.
Poulantzas, N. (1978) State, Power, Socialism, New Left Books, London.
32.
Schöplin, G. (1993) Politics in Eastern Europe 1945-1992, Blackwell, Oxford.
33.
Sik, E., (1988) New Trends in the Hungarian Welfare Systems: Towards 'Self-Welfarization'?, Jahrbuch für Sozialpolitik, Wien.
34.
Silburn, R., Kostrounova, L. and Page, R. (1992) One step forwards, one step back? Czechoslovakian social security policy in an era of change, a paper given at International Workshop on Social Responses to Political and Economic Transformations in East-Central Europe, Prague, 29-31 May.
35.
Tatur, M. (1991a) Die Bedeutung der 'etatistischen Gesellschaft' in Polen fu die soziologische Theorie, Leviathan2: 292-304.
36.
Tatur, M. (1991b) Zur Dialektik der 'civil society' in Polen, in R. Deppe (ed.) Demokratische Umbruch in Ost-Europa, Suhrkamp Verlag, pp. 234-54.
37.
Tatur, M. (1992) Catholism and modernization in Poland, Journal of ComministStudies7 (3): 335-49.
38.
Teune, H. (1990) Comparing countries: lessons learned, in E. Oyen (ed.) Comparative Methodology: Theory and Practice in International Social Research, Sage Studies in International Sociology, London, pp. 38-62.
39.
Timar, J. (1991) Economic reforms and new employment problems in Hungary, in J. Adam (ed.) Economic Reforms and Welfare Systems in the USSR, Poland and Hungary, Polity Press, London, pp. 156-77.-
40.
Timar, J. (1992) A personal interview with the author at the Economic School of Budapest, 14 March 1992.
