Markets and People. The Czech Reform Experience in a Comparative Perspective

A large documentation of statistical and sociological surveys is used in this book to present a plastic picture of the transition in the Czech Republic “from below” i.e. as experienced by individuals and households. Other East-Central European and the EU countries serve as a comparative context. The focus in on the economic dimension of the transformation, as displayed in earnings, secondary resources, household incomes and expenditures, financial hardship and poverty. To display the process in its manifold dimensions, several boundaries are crossed: between economics and sociology, macro- and micro-level, individuals and institutions, objective and subjective evidence. The establishment and cultivation of markets (labour, consumer, housing and financial) is described on the behavioural and attitudinal level as well as social policy responses to the emerging hardship, experienced by the population. Consequences of changing standards of living on inequality, social structure and political orientations are displayed within alternative theoretical concepts.