European Policy Analysis Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2016 | Page 69

European Policy Analysis

Fenger, van der Steen, and van der
Torre (2014) used the idea of historical
institutionalism based on the assumption
that a set of institutional constraints and
opportunities affects the behavior of political
actors. Fenger et al. (2014) identified the three
logics that might affect the development of
highly institutionalized policy domains:

politic can be restored by investigation that
establishes the truth in a public manner,
said Sulitzeanu-Kenan and Holzman-Gazit
(2016). By them, institutional legitimacy is
claimed to rely on the degree to which the
inquiry conducts its proceedings in a public
manner.

Employment protection, working
conditions,
organizational
policies,
including the measures to maintain
productivity are such institutional features
that have an impact on decision to work or
retire.

Employment
protection.
The
institutional characteristics of employment
protection in selected countries are
reflected in the different social models of
selected countries (neoliberal Baltic states,
embedded neoliberal Visegrád states, and
neocorporatist in Slovenia). Employment
protections such as the notice of termination,
severance payment, difficulty of dismissal,
and so on can vary in the analyzed countries.
For example, the employment protection
legislation in regular employment is less
strict in Hungary, Bulgaria and Poland than
in Estonia and even more in Czech Republic
(Cazes and Nesporova 2004).
According
to
employment
institutional features, Bukodi et al. (2006)
classified Hungary and Estonia into the
post-socialist or transition regime. They
distinguished three important kinds of
security: job security—the security of being
able to stay in the same job; employment
security—the security of staying employed
not necessarily in the same job; income
security—the security of having an income
in the case of unemployment, sickness.
These three securities have different
combination in every country, because of
different institutional employment features.
For example, in Hungary mid-career men
in higher level occupations definitely have a
lower risk of experiencing unemployment.

• The logic of the socio-economic and societal
environment. Changes in socioeconomic
and societal–cultural conditions create
pressures on policy domains to adjust
policies to the new conditions.
• The logic of public preferences. The
concept of responsiveness refers to the
extent to which policy decisions follow
public preferences.
• The internal institutional logic of the policy
domain. In this logic, the policy domains’
internal paradigms, characteristics
and administrative procedures guide
institutional evolution. According to
Fenger et al. (2014), institutional logic,
public preferences and socio-economic
and societal conditions are related with
each other.

Kang (2014) stated that in recent years
there has been convergence between rational
choice and historical institutionalism. They
distinguished one form of sociological/
organizational institutionalism among other
two, which has features such as: legitimating
explanation; individuals and communities as
cultural beings; an institution is reproduced
because actors believe that it is morally just
or appropriate; mimetic, normative and
coercive pressures that challenge takenfor-granted cultural frameworks, cognitive
schema and norms/values. Such form
of institutionalism offers an analytical
framework for policy as normative and
coercive pressure for the people decisions.

Public confidence in the body
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