The pillars of the soviet welfare state

The main topic of this study is the construction of poverty as a direct or indirect outcome of policy design. In order to understand how poverty was conceived, constructed and dealt with during communism, we need to look at the overall model of social redistribution existing under communist rule.

In Chapter One we maintained that, despite enduring disagreement concerning the existence of an alleged fifth welfare regime, a number of distinctive features of the communist model of social redistribution played a major role as determinants or ‘pathways’ for the development of the welfare state in these countries (Cerami and Vanhuysse, 2008; Inglot, 2008). That a fifth welfare regime should be labelled ‘post-communist’ and join the already established liberal, conservative, social democratic and Mediterranean regimes, raises the question: was there not a communism welfare regime?

It is not the case that a communist model of social policy, a communist welfare state, so to speak, never existed. On the contrary, the communist model of social redistribution that existed both in the Soviet Union and also in Central Eastern Europe after 1945 was considered one of the principal defining characteristics of socialism, besides being a major element of the communist party's political propaganda.

We should remind ourselves that given their specific characteristics, CEE countries should be regarded as ‘multi-layered, evolving entities’ (Inglot, 2008: 74) and that their common, albeit differentiated, communist past only represents a part of the story. As mentioned earlier, in order to really understand social policy change in CEE countries one must focus specifically on their ability to adapt over time. A consideration of what existed before communism is also vital for understanding what historical legacies have been left behind and whether there had been any pre-existing ideas about equality, welfare, merit, deservedness and social justice in the societies in question. Indeed, as several studies have shown, neither the communist model of social policy, nor post-communist welfare states were established in a complete institutional vacuum (Offe, 1993; Cerami, 2006; 2009), but were the result of pre-existing ideologies that guided their formation.