national populism and slovak – hungarian relations in - MEK

Zsolt GálNational Populism and Slovak – Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006 – 2009. Forum Minority Research Institute Šamorín – Somorja, 2009employment agencies. *** Data for Hungary are from 2007. **** Data provided by TargetedLabour Force Surveys carried out by national statistical bureaux in the 4Q 2008.Sources: Czech Republic: Czech Statistical Office (lines 0, 1, 5, 8.1), Czech Social SecurityAdministration (line 2), Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (lines 3, 4); Slovakia: StatisticalOffice of the Slovak Republic (lines 0, 1, 3, 8.1), Headquarters of Labour, Social Affairs andFamily (lines 4, 6), Social Insurance Company (lines 2, 5); Hungary: Central Statistical Office(lines 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 8.1), Central Directorate of Pension Security (line 2), State EmploymentAgency (line 4).Table 4 shows that the ratio is the worst in Hungary and the best in theCzech Republic; Slovakia is somewhere in between, although closer to thelatter. This corresponds to the overall support for populist parties, which isthe strongest in Hungary (over 80%), lower but still considerable inSlovakia (between 55–60%) and the lowest in the Czech Republic; however,the overall support for populist subjects is still higher than the ratio ofgovernment-financed to market-financed citizens would suggest. There areseveral plausible explanations for this:– The table does not include all population groups that are financed by government,for instance many people participating in requalification trainingprograms that are financed from public budgets, people who are employedin the private sector but their jobs are (partially) subsidized by government,and hundreds of thousands of young people whose university studiesare (completely or partially) financed from the state budget.– The sole fact that people are employed in the private sector does not necessarilyrule out their support for populist economic measures, which isoften driven by completely rational and selfish reasons. For instance, peoplewho have few years to retirement are likely to endorse jacking up pensions;people who are planning to have children are likely to embrace theidea of increasing children’s allowance or extending the parental leave,etc. Besides, politicians may also offer a broad range of incentives to privatesector employees, such as enacting higher minimum wage, longerpaid leave, more luncheon vouchers, shorter work hours, higher overtimebonuses, better protection against layoffs (i.e. period of notice, severancepay), etc.– Significant differences in voter participation of government-financed andmarket-financed citizens may shuffle election cards thoroughly andcause a victory/defeat of one group or another; however, there are noessential differences between the two principal categories’ voter participationin CEE countries.– Voters may not vote rationally as their values and views, personal sympathiesor traditions may prevail over their own financial interests. Forinstance, a pensioner may oppose introduction of the 13 th annual pensionbecause he is aware of the measure’s unsustainable and harmful204