Mitchell Orenstein studies political economy and foreign policy with an emphasis on post-communist Central and Eastern Europe. His research has focused on transnational policy campaigns in which international governmental and non-governmental actors seek to influence policy in multiple states. His first book, Out of the Red (2001), compared international influence on strategies for economic transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. In Privatizing Pensions (2008), he analyzed the role of a coalition led by the World Bank on the spread of pension privatization worldwide. His new work focuses on Russian and European foreign policy, the political economy of transition, and the spread of neoliberal economic policies worldwide. Address: 752 Williams Hall
University of Pennsylvania
worldwide fully or partially replaced their pre-existing pay-as-you-go pension systems with ones ... more worldwide fully or partially replaced their pre-existing pay-as-you-go pension systems with ones based on individual, private savings accounts in a process often labelled “pension privatization”. After the global financial crisis, this trend was put on hold for economic, ideational, and institutional reasons, despite a rise in critical indebtedness that has facilitated pension privatization in the past. Is the global trend towards pension privatization dead or in the process of being reborn, perhaps in a somewhat different form? Several recent trends point to rebirth as policy-makers scale back public and private pension systems, attend to minimum pensions and “nudge” rather than mandate people to save for retirement.issr_1403 65..80 Keywords pension scheme, private pension scheme, defined contribution plan, social security reform, economic conditions, international
The recent debate over crime in Russia has become a touchstone for two competing notions about th... more The recent debate over crime in Russia has become a touchstone for two competing notions about the role of political institutions in economic reform. The problems of Russia-its overnight transformation into a world center for narcotics distribution and money-laundering, its burgeoning murder rate, and its dangerous free markets in nuclear material and grenade launchers-have increased awareness that well-ordered market economies depend upon strong, legitimate, and liberal state institutions. There is fundamental disagreement, ...
From 1981 to 2004, a paradigm shift occurred in pension systems worldwide as more than 30 countri... more From 1981 to 2004, a paradigm shift occurred in pension systems worldwide as more than 30 countries fully or partially replaced their stateadministered pay-as-you-go pension systems with ones based on individual, private savings accounts. Yet in 2005, pension privatization abruptly stopped. After the 2008 crisis, several countries that had privatized their pension systems scaled back or even canceled individual accounts. Is the new pension paradigm dead? And if so, why? This article shows that fiscal and ideational factors ...
The study of how ideas and discourse evolve within international organizations is one of the most... more The study of how ideas and discourse evolve within international organizations is one of the most important frontiers of global social policy theory. Setting forth an ideational approach to understanding their behavior, the article argues that international organizations are more open systems than most realists and structuralists believe. Their constantly evolving discourse and ideas can directly impact domestic policy. In order to stress this reality, drawing on the case of pension privatization, the article compares these organizations with ideologically driven domestic think tanks which, as far as pension privatization is concerned, have proved much more rigid in their policy prescriptions than the World Bank and other international organizations traditionally associated with the global pension privatization campaign.
The sight of thousands of people demonstrating for clean elections and an end to corrupt postcomm... more The sight of thousands of people demonstrating for clean elections and an end to corrupt postcommunist regimes led many observers to declare that the so-called color revolutions had finally brought democracy to Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. But how successful have these electoral revolutions actually been? The authors analyze all cases of electoral revolutions worldwide since 1991, distinguishing between failed and successful electoral revolutions, to conclude that even successful electoral revolutions have shown insignificant or no democratic progress in their wake. Electoral revolutions are ineffective at advancing democratization because they place too great an emphasis on elections themselves and do not address other fundamental obstacles to democratization in hybrid and authoritarian regimes. International influences have proven more successful in promoting democratization in countries of postcommunist Europe.
Abstract: After the demise of the Soviet Union and the Communist-dominated regimes of central and... more Abstract: After the demise of the Soviet Union and the Communist-dominated regimes of central and eastern Europe, democratic polities were created and consolidated in a number of post-Communist countries. But in others, the process of democratization never started or, if it did, stalled at some point and the countries evolved into hybrid regimes that combined, in varying mixes, elements of democratic and authoritarian politics. A good deal of scholarly attention has been devoted to analyzing the role played by transnational linkages and ...
In the years since the demise of the Soviet Union, the process of democratization never started o... more In the years since the demise of the Soviet Union, the process of democratization never started or, if it did, stalled and went into reverse in most of the non-Baltic post-Soviet states. While a good deal of scholarly attention has been devoted to the impact of transnational and international actors and forces on the democratization of the non-Soviet post-Communist countries, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the impact of such actors and forces on the failed or still-incomplete processes of democratization in most of the non-Baltic post-Soviet countries. In particular, little attention has been devoted to examining the extent to which Russia – by far the largest, whether measured by geography, population, economy, or military, and certainly the most influential internationally – has influenced the process of democratization in the other non-Baltic post-Soviet countries. This paper takes a first step in addressing that question. Using annual data reported by Freedom House as surrogate measures of the extent of democracy over the past two decades, it suggests that with one notable exception – Ukraine – the extent of democratization has either not progressed at all or has receded over the past decade in all of the non-Baltic post-Soviet countries. While there are no doubt many forms and modes of influence that a large and powerful state can deploy to influence a neighbor, the paper considers the extent to which, if at all, Russia may have made use of economic, political, and geopolitical modes of influence to slow or reverse the process of democratization in the other non-Baltic post-Soviet countries. The discussion suggests that, while Russia deployed all three modes of influence from time to time, geopolitics may have been especially important in determining both the extent to which it sought to influence the process of democratization and the means by which it did so.
Social Reform in East-Central Europe: New Trends in Transition, Oct 1, 1994
An exceptional level of social accord and political stability has accompanied radical economic re... more An exceptional level of social accord and political stability has accompanied radical economic reform in the Czech Republic since 1989. Although political cultural and economic explanations are often used to account for this, the author makes an institutional argument and demonstrates the Czech tripartite councils central conrriburion to the construction of social peace. The Czech tripartite council was created as part of a governmentstrategy of consensus. It gave the trade unions a forum for interest representation, became the peak ...
worldwide fully or partially replaced their pre-existing pay-as-you-go pension systems with ones ... more worldwide fully or partially replaced their pre-existing pay-as-you-go pension systems with ones based on individual, private savings accounts in a process often labelled “pension privatization”. After the global financial crisis, this trend was put on hold for economic, ideational, and institutional reasons, despite a rise in critical indebtedness that has facilitated pension privatization in the past. Is the global trend towards pension privatization dead or in the process of being reborn, perhaps in a somewhat different form? Several recent trends point to rebirth as policy-makers scale back public and private pension systems, attend to minimum pensions and “nudge” rather than mandate people to save for retirement.issr_1403 65..80 Keywords pension scheme, private pension scheme, defined contribution plan, social security reform, economic conditions, international
The recent debate over crime in Russia has become a touchstone for two competing notions about th... more The recent debate over crime in Russia has become a touchstone for two competing notions about the role of political institutions in economic reform. The problems of Russia-its overnight transformation into a world center for narcotics distribution and money-laundering, its burgeoning murder rate, and its dangerous free markets in nuclear material and grenade launchers-have increased awareness that well-ordered market economies depend upon strong, legitimate, and liberal state institutions. There is fundamental disagreement, ...
From 1981 to 2004, a paradigm shift occurred in pension systems worldwide as more than 30 countri... more From 1981 to 2004, a paradigm shift occurred in pension systems worldwide as more than 30 countries fully or partially replaced their stateadministered pay-as-you-go pension systems with ones based on individual, private savings accounts. Yet in 2005, pension privatization abruptly stopped. After the 2008 crisis, several countries that had privatized their pension systems scaled back or even canceled individual accounts. Is the new pension paradigm dead? And if so, why? This article shows that fiscal and ideational factors ...
The study of how ideas and discourse evolve within international organizations is one of the most... more The study of how ideas and discourse evolve within international organizations is one of the most important frontiers of global social policy theory. Setting forth an ideational approach to understanding their behavior, the article argues that international organizations are more open systems than most realists and structuralists believe. Their constantly evolving discourse and ideas can directly impact domestic policy. In order to stress this reality, drawing on the case of pension privatization, the article compares these organizations with ideologically driven domestic think tanks which, as far as pension privatization is concerned, have proved much more rigid in their policy prescriptions than the World Bank and other international organizations traditionally associated with the global pension privatization campaign.
The sight of thousands of people demonstrating for clean elections and an end to corrupt postcomm... more The sight of thousands of people demonstrating for clean elections and an end to corrupt postcommunist regimes led many observers to declare that the so-called color revolutions had finally brought democracy to Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. But how successful have these electoral revolutions actually been? The authors analyze all cases of electoral revolutions worldwide since 1991, distinguishing between failed and successful electoral revolutions, to conclude that even successful electoral revolutions have shown insignificant or no democratic progress in their wake. Electoral revolutions are ineffective at advancing democratization because they place too great an emphasis on elections themselves and do not address other fundamental obstacles to democratization in hybrid and authoritarian regimes. International influences have proven more successful in promoting democratization in countries of postcommunist Europe.
Abstract: After the demise of the Soviet Union and the Communist-dominated regimes of central and... more Abstract: After the demise of the Soviet Union and the Communist-dominated regimes of central and eastern Europe, democratic polities were created and consolidated in a number of post-Communist countries. But in others, the process of democratization never started or, if it did, stalled at some point and the countries evolved into hybrid regimes that combined, in varying mixes, elements of democratic and authoritarian politics. A good deal of scholarly attention has been devoted to analyzing the role played by transnational linkages and ...
In the years since the demise of the Soviet Union, the process of democratization never started o... more In the years since the demise of the Soviet Union, the process of democratization never started or, if it did, stalled and went into reverse in most of the non-Baltic post-Soviet states. While a good deal of scholarly attention has been devoted to the impact of transnational and international actors and forces on the democratization of the non-Soviet post-Communist countries, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the impact of such actors and forces on the failed or still-incomplete processes of democratization in most of the non-Baltic post-Soviet countries. In particular, little attention has been devoted to examining the extent to which Russia – by far the largest, whether measured by geography, population, economy, or military, and certainly the most influential internationally – has influenced the process of democratization in the other non-Baltic post-Soviet countries. This paper takes a first step in addressing that question. Using annual data reported by Freedom House as surrogate measures of the extent of democracy over the past two decades, it suggests that with one notable exception – Ukraine – the extent of democratization has either not progressed at all or has receded over the past decade in all of the non-Baltic post-Soviet countries. While there are no doubt many forms and modes of influence that a large and powerful state can deploy to influence a neighbor, the paper considers the extent to which, if at all, Russia may have made use of economic, political, and geopolitical modes of influence to slow or reverse the process of democratization in the other non-Baltic post-Soviet countries. The discussion suggests that, while Russia deployed all three modes of influence from time to time, geopolitics may have been especially important in determining both the extent to which it sought to influence the process of democratization and the means by which it did so.
Social Reform in East-Central Europe: New Trends in Transition, Oct 1, 1994
An exceptional level of social accord and political stability has accompanied radical economic re... more An exceptional level of social accord and political stability has accompanied radical economic reform in the Czech Republic since 1989. Although political cultural and economic explanations are often used to account for this, the author makes an institutional argument and demonstrates the Czech tripartite councils central conrriburion to the construction of social peace. The Czech tripartite council was created as part of a governmentstrategy of consensus. It gave the trade unions a forum for interest representation, became the peak ...
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