From a Garbage Can to a Compost Model of Decision‐Making? Social Policy Reform and the Czech Government's Reaction to the International Financial Crisis

In: Social policy and administration, Volume 48, Issue 4, p. 450-467

Abstract

AbstractThis article argues that the financial crisis did not have a strong impact on Czech social policy. In contrast to the garbage‐can model, in which policymakers wait for a 'window of opportunity' to implement radical reforms, the Czech centre‐right parties instead used the crisis as a means of continuing their market‐liberal reforms that they had initiated before the crisis had even begun. Since they had extremely little public support for their reforms, they tried to bring about gradual change. Thus, instead of pulling radical reforms out of the garbage‐can, Czech right‐wing politicians have tended to take out smaller biodegradable goods that can decay and compost into fertile ground in order to sow the seeds of gradual change.