Papers by Steven Saxonberg
Routledge eBooks, Jun 26, 2020
This article examines the developments of family policies in four post-communist countries (the C... more This article examines the developments of family policies in four post-communist countries (the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary). A general tendency has emerged of implementing familist, gendered policies that encourage women to leave the labor market to raise children. The interplay of the ideological, economic and institutional legacy of the communist past with new economic, social and political conditions coupled with shifts in values have greatly influenced these policies.
Springer eBooks, 2019
This chapter explains why France did not become totalitarian even though it was one of the very f... more This chapter explains why France did not become totalitarian even though it was one of the very first countries to introduce an inquisition. It analyzes the country’s state-building process as well as the relations between the monarchy and the Catholic Church. It points out that it is too simplistic to claim that the French inquisition is not comparable to the Spanish Inquisition, since the French one was papal, while the Spanish one was controlled by the state (hence the capitalization of Inquisition for the Spanish case). Instead, it argues that relationships between the local Church authorities, the pope and the monarchy were complicated in both cases. However, since the inquisition in France was not part of a state-building strategy, the monarchy had no incentive to use it for uniting the country behind a totalitarian ideology. The chapter also shows that in contrast to Spain the inquisition was not based on ethnicity, so as a result, it met much greater resistance than in Spain. In addition, in France blood did was not as important for the aristocracy as in
Introduction: A new look at social movements and civil society in post-communist Europe and Russia
One of the most important goals of the Lisbon Agenda was to raise the employment rate of women in... more One of the most important goals of the Lisbon Agenda was to raise the employment rate of women in all the member states of the European Union to 60 percent by 2010. This should contribute to the sustainability of the European social model. Some progress was made in the last few years, but in most of the countries, the goal was not achieved. With the work in the project “Impact of local welfare systems on female labour force participation and social cohesion (FLOWS)” we want to find out the reasons for the differences in the goal attainment between various urban regions in several European countries. An important and underresearched area is the role of local welfare systems, but also the influence of economic factors, labour market characteristics ad culture. However, we are not only interested in the causes of the female labour market behaviour, but also in its impact on inequality and social cohesion. The general aim of WP2 is to understand how the “local production system” and labour demand frame the employment opportunities of women in the 11 urban contexts analyzed in our research. More specifically, the research report identifies certain patterns of urban economy, highlighting both the effects of the local production systems on the female integration into the labour market and, conversely, the impact of the female participation on the competitiveness of the local economy.The analysis focuses on three main aspects: the urban economic pattern of development and structure of the labour market; horizontal and vertical sex segregation; forms of local coordination of the labour market.
Journal of Family Studies, Feb 22, 2023
Social Movement Studies, Nov 14, 2022
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, many scholars have sought to explain the collapse of communism... more Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, many scholars have sought to explain the collapse of communism. Yet, more than two decades on, communist regimes continue to rule in a diverse set of countries including China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam. In a unique study of fourteen countries, Steven Saxonberg explores the reasons for the survival of some communist regimes while others fell. He also shows why the process of collapse differed among communist-led regimes in Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Based on the analysis of the different processes of collapse that has already taken place, and taking into account the special characteristics of the remaining communist regimes, Transitions and Non-Transitions from Communism discusses the future prospects for the survival of the regimes in China, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam.
European politics and society, 1999
Polityki rodzinne w Polsku i ich wplyw na role wynikające z plci oraz prawa jednostki jest tema. ... more Polityki rodzinne w Polsku i ich wplyw na role wynikające z plci oraz prawa jednostki jest tema. Ta tema je: Polityki rodzinne w Polsku.
Social Policy & Administration, Oct 16, 2016
This study shows that although Norway and Sweden have rather similar family policies, the seeming... more This study shows that although Norway and Sweden have rather similar family policies, the seemingly small differences that exist reflect different national ideals of care, and these differences encourage parents to employ different gendered moral rationalities. However, Sweden's ideal of 'equalsharing/professional care', encourages fathers to take longer leaves than the Norwegian ideal of 'partial sharing plus choosing between professional or parental care'. Given their different national ideals of caring, different gendered moral rationalities emerge. While in Norway the dominant gendered moral rationality among our interviewees is 'man-doing-his-duty', in Sweden two different rationalities arise: the 'breastfeeding-plus-sharing' rationality and the 'male-opt-out'. This conclusion is based on 60 interviews with mothers and fathers in Oslo and Stockholm.
Cambridge University Press eBooks, Feb 5, 2013
Munispace – čítárna Masarykovy univerzity, 2013
Osobni celodenni peci o děti mladsi tři let ma zajisťovat matka. Starsim clenům rodiny, kteři pot... more Osobni celodenni peci o děti mladsi tři let ma zajisťovat matka. Starsim clenům rodiny, kteři potřebuji podporu, ma být umožněno zůstat ve svem přirozenem prostředi co nejdele. Kniha se zaměřuje na tyto dvě ustředni normy pece a zkouma, jak jsou institucionalizovany v ramci souvisejicich politických opatřeni a jak připadně ovlivňuji životy žen v Ceske republice a konkretně v Brně, zvlastě pak jejich sance na pracovnim trhu. Ackoli se tyto dvě normy vztahuji k velmi odlisným životnim situacim, maji spolecneho jmenovatele. Tim je fakt, že obě vyvolavaji potřebu (neformalni) pece, jež je připisovana převažně ženam, ktere ji poskytuji, a to v roli matky, babicky nebo dcery. Prezentovaný výzkum se uskutecnil v ramci projektu financovaneho Evropskou unii pod nazvem „Vliv lokalnich systemů socialniho zabezpeceni na participaci žen na trhu prace a socialni soudržnost“ (FLOWS).
Routledge eBooks, Oct 11, 2013
Page 1. 1 Elzbieta Korolczuk Steven Saxonberg “The happy slave” takes to the streets: the strateg... more Page 1. 1 Elzbieta Korolczuk Steven Saxonberg “The happy slave” takes to the streets: the strategies for women's mobilizations in Poland and Czech Republic after 1989. 1 Introduction Much was written about the apparent lack of women's mobilizations in Central and Eastern Europe during the first decade after the collapse of communism (ie Stetson & Mazur 1995, Funk & Mueller 1993, Renne 1997, Rueschemeyer 1995, Goldfarb 1997). The Polish sociologist Henryk Domanski coined the term “happy slave,” to ...
Social policy and society, Mar 27, 2024
In recent decades, populist parties and leaders have obtained great political success. Since popu... more In recent decades, populist parties and leaders have obtained great political success. Since populism plays on voter dissatisfaction with the political elite, we might expect that dissatisfaction with the welfare state should also play a role. In this study, we suggest measures to assess welfare state performance (WSP), and we examine how assessment of WSP helps to explain support for the populist political partiesboth rightwing and leftwing. Our findings are based on the sixth round of European Social Survey data that has a special module on democracy, which includes questions that enables us to measure WSP. This article shows that WSP is a significant predictor in explaining support for populist parties, but the dynamics differ between how WSP influences support for leftwing populist (LWP) and rightwing populist (RWP) parties.
Slavic Review, 2003
Bohemia: Czech Fiction audits Social Context, 2000). Of course, Porter cannot ignore the politica... more Bohemia: Czech Fiction audits Social Context, 2000). Of course, Porter cannot ignore the political aspects of literature; indeed this methodological extreme would be as simplistic as placing an uncritical emphasis on them (e.g., Peter Hruby, Daydreams and Nightmares: Czech Communist and Ex-Communist Literature, 1917-1987, 1990). But unlike the literary historians mentioned above, Porter pays attention to politics only when it forms an absolutely inseparable part of the story. Even when he analyzes the works of Josef Skvorecky, he devotes only one-third of his penetrating chapter about this Czech-Canadian author to "Politics and History." And Porter successfully persuades readers that the following two subsections, "Lyricism" and "Foreign Influences and Emigration," have at least the same importance as the first in a truthful description of the author's individual style. Another Czech author who deserves a political interpretation in Porter's view is Jachym Topol, an important representative of the younger generation who, relatively soon after the Velvet Revolution (in 1994), published a novel called Sestra (City sister silver). Numerous critics consider this novel an extremely important artistic image of postrevolutionary turmoil, though the real strength of the work is in its mythological dimension.
Sociologický časopis, May 16, 2023
Although previous studies show that welfare policies are important for populist voters, few studi... more Although previous studies show that welfare policies are important for populist voters, few studies have analysed in depth the social policy proposals of different types of populist parties. Since the Czech Republic is one of the few countries with a strong centrist-populist party that has been in power, this article concentrates on the Czech case and compares this centrist-populist party to the largest right-wing populist party and the main non-populist parties. We argue that the centrist and rightist Czech populist parties have developed different types of welfare agendas. The centrist-populist party supports encompassing and universalist policies (which it links to economic efficiency and administrative improvements); in contrast, the right-wing populist party supports the protection of those in need while preserving the principles of merit and economic incentives.
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Papers by Steven Saxonberg