Reforming European Welfare States
Germany and the United Kingdom Compared
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 20 September 2007
- ISBN 9780199232017
- Binding Paperback
- No. of pages272 pages
- Size 233x156x16 mm
- Weight 419 g
- Language English
- Illustrations numerous tables 0
Categories
Short description:
Written by a prominent contributor to recent debates on the welfare state, this is an in-depth comparison of two large European welfare states - UK and Germany. Spanning a 25-year period, this analysis provides a systematic comparison of policy change across each country in 3 core areas: unemployment support, pensions, and family policy.
MoreLong description:
Welfare state reform has been a focus of domestic policy making in many European countries in recent years. Representing almost a third of the EU population and two distinctive models of European welfare states, this book compares development in British and German social policy over the past 25 years. During this time four periods of conservative governments were followed by centre-left administrations in both countries. Moreover, the respective economic and social positions of the two countries have been reversed. Adverse socio-economic developments have contributed to the waning of the erstwhile appeal of Germany as a role model of welfare capitalism. By contrast, the UK is seen by some as being on its way to gaining such a position. These trends provide an analytically intriguing background for a systematic contextualised comparison of reform processes in the two welfare states.
Concentrating on three core domains of social policy, the book argues that unemployment support and public pension programmes have been subjected to retrenchment, as well as to restructuring. By contrast, family policies have been extended in both countries. However, patterns of retrenchment and restructuring differ across countries and programmes. In order to explain similarities and variations, the book emphasizes the relevance of three sets of factors: shifts in party policy preferences and power relations, three institutional variables, and contingent factors impinging on policy direction and profiles. Within pension policy, the relevance of different institutional characteristics and the respective balance between private and public forms of retirement suggest that the concept of 'path dependence' is particularly instructive. By contrast, differences in programme structures and their role within national political economies prove to be most relevant for the understanding of changes in unemployment support policy. Less institutionally embedded and expanding, the trajectories of family policies have to be seen in the context of dynamic party policy preferences.
Review from previous edition 'Clasen's book represents an outstanding contribution to the welfare state retrenchment and restructuring literature. It is especially valuable because it questions and qualifies received wisdoms in the debate, such as the stereotyping of the German and British welfare states or the dimensionality of the concept of change...a very readable piece deserving of a broad audience well beyond scholars of the German and British welfare states.'
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Welfare State Reform and Restructuring
Motives, Means, and Opportunities: Analytical Perspectives
Supporting Unemployed People: Income Protection and Activation
Retirement Pensions
Family Policy: Charting New Waters
Conclusion
