P16 - Capitalist Systems: Political EconomyReturn

Has the recent illiberal surge altered the neoliberal orthodoxy prevailing in post-1989 Hungary and Poland towards a more developmental modus operandi, or has it just camouflaged embedded neoliberalism with a developmental narrative? This article, trying to contribute to answering the aforementioned question, is structured as follows. First, we provide a general overview of the comparative capitalism approach. We extend the original conceptualizations by the framework of varieties of illiberal capitalism and present two ideal types of illiberal capitalism. Then, we assess five institutional areas of the political economy of contemporary Hungary and Poland. We conclude that although Hungary remains faithful to the neoliberal economic orthodoxy so far with illiberal political forces merely camouflaging its true essence due to political and utilitarian reasons, the post-2015 government in Poland managed to move its economic model closer to a more developmental modus operandi.

The paper deals with an analysis of the tax progressivity of personal income tax on dependent activity in the Czech Republic in the period 1993-2018. The personal income tax had a progressive rate in the past. Since 2008, the tax rate has been linear, complemented since 2013 by a solidarity tax increase. The analysis results show that in spite of the linear tax rate, the personal income tax in the Czech Republic is not linear. In most cases, the income tax has a progressive character due to the non-taxable part or tax reliefs. For taxpayers with above-average income, the situation is opposite and their tax liability was regressive in the period 2008-2012.

This paper aims to contribute to the theoretical discussion of free trade and protectionism in international trade within the context of International political economy. Presented approach broadens the standard political economy view of trade policy and goes beyond the redistribution consequences and the political consideration of policy makers. Our interpretation of trade policy works with broader economic values and preferences of individual actors and understands the nation state and its policies as institutions. Social, cultural and historical context is taken into consideration, when interpreting the trade policy. More complex understanding of these determinants helps to explain contemporary trade policies and also their dynamic change. Paper also discuss the links between the trade policy and other economic (structural and industrial) policies and attract attention to possible misunderstandings in contemporary free trade discourse.

The introductory parts of the paper analyse development of a local variety of capitalism in Slovakia from the institutional and evolutionary perspective. In early transition period privatisation policies were aimed at development of a liberal version of capitalism, based on fluid capital markets. These policies were confronted with institutional legacies of previous regimes. Privatisation, however, had major impact on structure of capital ownership and management. Next chapters compare contemporary Slovak capitalism with varieties found in other OECD economies. Major elements of institutional framework (labour market, business and financial environments) are subject to factor analysis. OECD member countries are compared via index of market coordination. Slovakia appears to be a market economy with middle levels of strategic market coordination and similar to Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Reliance on bank finance and dual economy are another distinctive features of the contemporary Slovak capitalism.