Beyond privatization: pension reform in the Czech Republic and Slovenia

Abstract

Research on the political economy of pension reform has focused on the recent wave of pension privatizations in the post-socialist region. This paper is motivated by the need to shed more light on cases where radical reform was rejected. Pension privatization did not proceed when the World Bank and the Ministry of Finance - important advocates of radical reform - were absent from the pension reform arena and the Ministry of Social Affairs was the only relevant reform actor. Moreover, unions need not be secondary actors, but may effectively veto pension privatization. The paper highlights the importance of the specific political and economic conditions that may constrain the leeway of pension reform actors, while also discussing the global politics of attention.