Pavol Baboš

Voter–Representative Congruence in Europe: A Loss of Institutional Influence?

What is the level of voter–elite congruence in Europe and how is it affected by institutions? This article presents a different conceptualisation and new data to comparative research on congruence between voters and their representatives in 15 European countries. The originality of this work is mainly in its use of the most appropriate cross-national data for the conceptualisation of congruence as a ‘many-to-many’ relationship, using for the first time a survey of representatives to replace expert and public opinion on legislators’ attitudes. The study’s results show that congruence in European countries is relatively high in terms of left–right positions and, surprisingly, even higher regarding the question of EU integration. However, while we find enough evidence to link ideological congruence to mostly electoral institutions, it seems the same factors have no relation to the European unification dimension of congruence. This indicates the different nature of congruence in both the ideological and EU integration dimensions. Additionally, the present study found congruence to be higher for the group of voters rather than non-voters, and also higher for voters interested in politics as well as voters with a university degree.

Step or trap? Transition from fixed-term contracts in Central Eastern Europe

This article investigates the transition from fixed-term contracts to permanent jobs from the viewpoint of the ‘stepping stone versus trap’ theoretical framework. The main contribution of this research is that it examines what function fixed-term contracts have in the EU new member states, countries that have not yet been investigated in this regard. This research tests which individual characteristics influence the transition to permanent employment and how labour market institutions can help in understanding the differences among countries. The analysis covers the eight post-communist countries which joined the EU in 2004. The period analysed is 2005–10. We make use of the EU-SILC dataset and employ multinomial logistic regression to perform the analysis. The findings reveal that, on average, a temporary job is more a trap than a stepping stone, although considerable differences exist across countries. Surprisingly, most of the individual demographic and human capital characteristics do not have an effect on the transition to permanent employment. Only the age category and work experience significantly increase the chances for a successful transition. Institutions such as employment rigidity and industrial relations explain a considerable amount of the country variations. More rigid labour markets and stronger trade unions lower the probability of successful transition. We argue that the reason is that companies use FTCs as a tool to increase flexibility in rigid labour markets. The concluding part discusses some limitations of the research, links it back to the theoretical literature and suggests some challenges for future research.

Just a Show? Effects of Televised Debates on Political Attitudes and Preferences in Slovakia

The popularity of televised political debates is growing, attracting millions of viewers. However, evidence that such debates can shift voters’ attitudes is mixed and the impact on voters’ preference is also mixed. In addition, the evidence comes mostly from presidential elections in the United States and almost exclusively from established democracies. A call for comparative research in new democracies has been made several times. Our research answers the call and contributes to this debate by comparing two experimental studies based on first-order national elections and second-order European Parliament elections in Slovakia. To our knowledge, this is the first time such a study has been performed in a post-communist EU country. We employed a pre-test/post-test experimental design in a controlled environment with participants randomly assigned to both groups. The results show that debate exposure has a stronger effect on opinions about candidates’ leadership skills, credibility, and economic competence if the candidates were previously unknown. Familiarity with the candidates and pre-existing preferences also function as a block to preference change. Almost all of our findings are in line with previous research originating from Western contexts. Therefore, we conclude that the causal mechanism linking debate exposure to voters’ preference and attitudes in the post-communist context is similar to that in Western countries with long-term democratic traditions.

One Union, Two Universes? Critical Perception of the EU in Six EU Member States

Future of European integration is increasingly more discussed in current Europe. In the project “Comprehending and Debating Euroscepticism�? we studied Euroscepticism among ordinary citizens and how this can be addressed on local level. This discussion paper summarizes the citizens’ discussions. Overall, in its first phase the project conducted debates with almost 400 citizens in six member states of the EU: Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Latvia, Slovakia. According to citizens, the main benefits of the EU are the four basic freedoms, most of all freedom to travel and work in other parts of the Union. Most criticized were the European funds as the source of corruption, migration crisis as an example of the Union’s failure to protect itself, and the feeling of second-class citizenship in the post-communist societies. In the discussion section we relate our findings to the debate on the future of the European integration, particularly the idea of differentiated integration.

The Neo-Transitional Paradox: Restrictive Capital Regulations, Authoritarian State and Limited Welfare Type of Capitalism Examined in International Context

Abstract In this paper we show that the neo-transitional economies are less neoliberal than could be expected given their 25-years long transition towards building market environment, supporting entrepreneurship and restoring capitalism in general. According to factor analysis results based on a cross-sectional sample of 134 countries during the period of 2010–2012 we find that the neo-transitional economies are characterised by relatively restrictive trade and capital regulations, average level of labour protection and low activity of state in terms of tax-based redistribution and social cohesion support. We briefly review several theoretical frameworks, such as the World System Theory, Commodity Chain and Global Capital theory, and Varieties of Capitalism framework, and point towards their limitations in explaining these transitional outcomes. We conclude that these frameworks are not capable of providing the explanations mainly because of their limited or no concern for labour and capital, and their interactions with the national institutions. We conclude that the history of industrialisation and path dependence provides a more plausible framework for explaining the neo-transitional outcomes. Furthermore, the consideration of the ‘resource curse’ and authoritarian regimes in many CIS countries can explain their neglect for tax-based redistribution and the high degree of government interventions in trade and capital regulations.

Trust in Political Institutions: The Effect of Corruption, Electoral Winners, and the Post-Communist Legacy

Abstract Trust in political institutions is an important issue in contemporary democracies, as it contributes to democratic regimes’ legitimacy and sustainability. This paper investigates what effects corruption, political allegiance, and the post-communist history of a country have on political trust. Political trust is measured as trust towards parliament, political parties, and politicians. Both individual-and country-level factors are included in the analytical model in order to account for the personal and contextual characteristics that might shape political trust. This research employs the multilevel modelling for empirical analysis. The results show that the winner effect and corruption perception impact are relatively strongly affecting political trust. Surprisingly, the post-communist history of a country seems to play no significant role in driving political trust. The concluding part links the findings of this study back to the theory and draws several implications not only for the future research but also the real world of policies and politics.

Avoiding the high debt-low growth trap: lessons for the new member states

Despite relatively low starting level, public debt has been rising quickly in the post-socialist New Member States (NMS) of the European Union. The rising international literature on the effects of debt on economic development provides several lessons, although it mostly deals with the advanced industrial countries. The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, the authors of this paper survey the existing literature and draw possible conclusions for the NMS. The main argument here is that there are good reasons for the NMS to avoid high debt levels for reasons, such as negative impact on economic growth and related difficulties with deleveraging. Secondly, the authors inspect the data for the whole European Union from 2000 until 2013 and compare the impact of the indebtedness on Western versus Post-Communist economies. Empirical findings are in line with the previous research and show that high levels of indebtedness are more damaging to the post-communist countries. Therefore, in the conclusion, the theoretical and empirical arguments in favour of avoiding high debt levels are summarized.

Konceptualizácia a meranie variácií kapitalizmu v nových členských štátoch EÚ: Kritické zhodnotenie

Almost a decade has passed since the first post-communist states acceded to the EU. Ten years after confirmation of the successful establishment of democratic and market-economic institutions in these countries, it is time to ask what type of institutions really developed. This article critically reviews contemporary research into capitalism in the eight countries, the main approaches applied, and the findings published. Firstly, it attempts to identify the type of capitalism that has developed in the region. Secondly, it highlights some pitfalls in the contemporary study of capitalism in Central Eastern Europe and discusses possible remedies for future research. The main recommendation, discussed in more detail in the study, is that stricter theoretical reasoning would help to eliminate the contradictory conclusions many authors have arrived at.