Download or read book Development Democracy and Welfare States written by Stephan Haggard and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2008-09-14 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comparing the welfare states of Latin America, East Asia and Eastern Europe, the authors trace the origins of social policy in these regions to political changes in the mid-20th century, and show how the legacies of these early choices are influencing welfare reform following democratization and globalization.
Download or read book Social Democracy and the Crisis of Equality written by Carol Johnson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-02-20 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses social democratic parties’ attempts to tackle inequality in increasingly challenging times. It provides a distinctive contribution to the literature on the so-called ‘crisis’ of social democracy by exploring the role of equality policy in this crisis. While the main focus is on analysing Australian Labor governments, examples are also given from a wide range of parties internationally. The book traces how a traditional focus on class has expanded to include other forms of inequality, including issues of gender, race, ethnicity and sexuality and explores both the intersections and potential tensions that result. Meanwhile there are new challenges for equality policy arising from a changing geo-economics (the rise of Asia), the legacies of neoliberalism and the impact of technological disruption.
Download or read book State of Crisis written by Zygmunt Bauman and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-07-17 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today we hear much talk of crisis and comparisons are often made with the Great Depression of the 1930s, but there is a crucial difference that sets our current malaise apart from the 1930s: today we no longer trust in the capacity of the state to resolve the crisis and to chart a new way forward. In our increasingly globalized world, states have been stripped of much of their power to shape the course of events. Many of our problems are globally produced but the volume of power at the disposal of individual nation-states is simply not sufficient to cope with the problems they face. This divorce between power and politics produces a new kind of paralysis. It undermines the political agency that is needed to tackle the crisis and it saps citizens’ belief that governments can deliver on their promises. The impotence of governments goes hand in hand with the growing cynicism and distrust of citizens. Hence the current crisis is at once a crisis of agency, a crisis of representative democracy and a crisis of the sovereignty of the state. In this book the world-renowned sociologist Zygmunt Bauman and fellow traveller Carlo Bordoni explore the social and political dimensions of the current crisis. While this crisis has been greatly exacerbated by the turmoil following the financial crisis of 2007-8, Bauman and Bordoni argue that the crisis facing Western societies is rooted in a much more profound series of transformations that stretch back further in time and are producing long-lasting effects. This highly original analysis of our current predicament by two of the world’s leading social thinkers will be of interest to a wide readership.
Download or read book Nationalism and Democracy in the Welfare State written by Kettunen, Pauli and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This multidisciplinary book unpacks and outlines the contested roles of nationalism and democracy in the formation and transformation of welfare-state institutions and ideologies. At a time when neo-liberal, post-national and nationalist visions alike have challenged democratic welfare nationalism, the book offers a transnational historical perspective to the political dynamics of current changes. While particularly focusing on Nordic countries, often seen as the quintessential ‘models’ of the welfare state, the book collectively sheds light on the ‘history of the present’ of nation states bearing the character of a welfare state.
Download or read book Democracy and Crisis written by Wolfgang Merkel and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-03-08 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In light of the public and scholarly debates on the challenges and problems of established democracies, such as a lack of participation, declining confidence in political elites, and the deteriorating capabilities of democratic institutions, this volume discusses the question whether democracy as such is in crisis. On the basis of the shared concept of embedded democracy, it develops a range of conceptual approaches to empirically analyzing the challenges of democracy and their potential transformation into crisis phenomena. The book is divided into three parts, the first of which highlights various aspects of political participation, such as political inequality in voting. In turn, Part II focuses on problems of political representation, while Part III assesses whether processes such as globalization, deregulation, and the withdrawal of the state from important policy areas have limited the political control and legitimacy of democratically elected governments.
Download or read book Development and Crisis of the Welfare State written by Evelyne Huber and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-04-15 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evelyne Huber and John D. Stephens offer the most systematic examination to date of the origins, character, effects, and prospects of generous welfare states in advanced industrial democracies in the post—World War II era. They demonstrate that prolonged government by different parties results in markedly different welfare states, with strong differences in levels of poverty and inequality. Combining quantitative studies with historical qualitative research, the authors look closely at nine countries that achieved high degrees of social protection through different types of welfare regimes: social democratic states, Christian democratic states, and "wage earner" states. In their analysis, the authors emphasize the distribution of influence between political parties and labor movements, and also focus on the underestimated importance of gender as a basis for mobilization. Building on their previous research, Huber and Stephens show how high wages and generous welfare states are still possible in an age of globalization and trade competition.
Download or read book Welfare State and Democracy in Crisis written by Theodore Pelagidis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2001. Investigating the consequences of restrictive austerity policies and the downsizing of the welfare state this edited collection reflects on possible ways out by analyzing economic developments, social conflicts, legal forms and the prevailing directions of economic policy. According to official figures, around 9.5 per cent of the working population of the European Union is unemployed. Fifteen million European citizens are officially looking for work. In other countries such as the US, the increasing wage inequality has marginalized large parts of the population. The precipitous rise in unemployment (mainly in Europe) and income inequality (mainly in the USA) as well as the weakening of democratic and welfare institutions in almost every developed nation have caused huge social and political problems in recent years.
Download or read book In Search of Social Democracy written by John Callaghan and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first work to reflect in detail on the Left's experiences in government in the 1990s and early twenty-first century.
Download or read book The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism written by Gosta Esping-Andersen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-05-29 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few discussions in modern social science have occupied as much attention as the changing nature of welfare states in western societies. Gosta Esping-Andersen, one of the most distinguished contributors to current debates on this issue, here provides a new analysis of the character and role of welfare states in the functioning of contemporary advanced western societies. Esping-Andersen distinguishes several major types of welfare state, connecting these with variations in the historical development of different western countries. Current economic processes, the author argues, such as those moving towards a post-industrial order, are not shaped by autonomous market forces but by the nature of states and state differences. Fully informed by comparative materials, this book will have great appeal to everyone working on issues of economic development and post-industrialism. Its audience will include students and academics in sociology, economics and politics.
Download or read book Reflexive Democracy written by Kevin Olson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2006-04-28 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An argument for justifying the welfare state politically rather than economically, based on an ideal of democratic equality.
Download or read book A Care Crisis in the Nordic Welfare States written by Hansen, Lise Lotte and published by Policy Press. This book was released on 2021-11-29 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Academic experts review the impact of neoliberal politics and ideology on the status of care work in Nordic countries. They explore different understandings of the care crisis, the consequences for gender equality and the long-term sustainability of the Nordic welfare states.
Download or read book Democracy in Times of Pandemic written by Miguel Poiares Maduro and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-12 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the most important democratic challenges of today, using the Covid-19 pandemic as a case study.
Download or read book Social Democracy and Welfare Capitalism written by Alexander Hicks and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What has brought about the widespread public provision of welfare and income security within free-market liberalism? Some social scientists have regarded welfare as a preindustrial atavism; others, as a functional requirement of industrial society. Most recently, scholars have stressed the reformist actions of center-left parties during the decades following World War II, the workings of "new" post-industrial politics lately, and a multifaceted role of politics and state institutions overall. Alexander Hicks thoroughly revises these views, stressing the enduring significance of class organizations, however politically embedded, from the era of Bismark until the present. Social Democracy and Welfare Capitalism describes and explains income security programs in affluent and democratic capitalist nations, from the proto-democratic innovators of the 1880s to the globally buffeted democracies of the 1990s. Hicks's account stresses the reformist role of employee political and economic organization and derivative institutions, in particular, social democratic parties, labor unions, and neo-corporatist arrangements. These forces, arrayed as the elements of a transnational and century-long social democratic movement, give direction and continuity to the emergence, development, and contestation of income security policies.
Download or read book Empire of Democracy written by Simon Reid-Henry and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2019-06-25 with total page 880 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first panoramic history of the Western world from the 1970s to the present day, Empire of Democracy is the story for those asking how we got to where we are. Half a century ago, at the height of the Cold War and amidst a world economic crisis, the Western democracies were forced to undergo a profound transformation. Against what some saw as a full-scale “crisis of democracy”— with race riots, anti-Vietnam marches and a wave of worker discontent sowing crisis from one nation to the next— a new political-economic order was devised and the postwar social contract was torn up and written anew. In this epic narrative of the events that have shaped our own times, Simon Reid-Henry shows how liberal democracy, and western history with it, was profoundly reimagined when the postwar Golden Age ended. As the institutions of liberal rule were reinvented, a new generation of politicians emerged: Thatcher, Reagan, Mitterrand, Kohl. The late twentieth century heyday they oversaw carried the Western democracies triumphantly to victory in the Cold War and into the economic boom of the 1990s. But equally it led them into the fiasco of Iraq, to the high drama of the financial crisis in 2007/8, and ultimately to the anti-liberal surge of our own times. The present crisis of liberalism enjoins us to revisit these as yet unscripted decades. The era we have all been living through is closing out, democracy is turning on its axis once again. As this panoramic history poignantly reminds us, the choices we make going forward require us first to come to terms with where we have been.
Download or read book Politics in a Time of Crisis written by Pablo Iglesias and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A manifesto for a new, democratic left: a political programme poised to transform Europe Since 2011, Pablo Iglesias has led Podemos, a new radical left party in Spain that is reframing the nature of modern politics. Under his guidance, the party has unmasked the ideological motives behind European austerity, revealing the true nature of this power grab conducted on behalf of elites intent on dismantling the welfare state. Here, Iglesias delineates his political vision. He skewers not only the Spanish establishment, but also the anti-democratic bloc comprising the Troika, corporate interests, and the “Wall Street Party.” Politics in a Time of Crisis—which includes an in-depth interview with Iglesias—is an incisive examination of the current situation in Europe as well as a stirring call for international resistance.
Download or read book The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State written by Asbjørn Wahl and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an age of government imposed austerity, and after 30 years of neo-liberal restructuring, the future of the welfare state looks increasingly uncertain. Asbjorn Wahl offers an accessible analysis of the situation across Europe, identifies the most important challenges and presents practical proposals for combating the assault on welfare.Wahl argues that the welfare state should be seen as the result of a class compromise forged in the 20th century, which means that it cannot easily be exported internationally. He considers the enormous shifts in power relations and the profound internal changes to the welfare state which have occurred during the neo-liberal era, pointing to the paradigm shift that the welfare state is going through. This is illustrated by the shift from welfare to workfare and increased top-down control.As well as being a fascinating study in its own right that will appeal to students of economics and politics, The Rise and Fall of the Welfare State also points to an alternative way forward for the trade union movement based on concrete examples of struggles and alliance-building.
Download or read book Democracy and the Left written by Evelyne Huber and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although inequality in Latin America ranks among the worst in the world, it has notably declined over the last decade, offset by improvements in health care and education, enhanced programs for social assistance, and increases in the minimum wage. In Democracy and the Left, Evelyne Huber and John D. Stephens argue that the resurgence of democracy in Latin America is key to this change. In addition to directly affecting public policy, democratic institutions enable left-leaning political parties to emerge, significantly influencing the allocation of social spending on poverty and inequality. But while democracy is an important determinant of redistributive change, it is by no means the only factor. Drawing on a wealth of data, Huber and Stephens present quantitative analyses of eighteen countries and comparative historical analyses of the five most advanced social policy regimes in Latin America, showing how international power structures have influenced the direction of their social policy. They augment these analyses by comparing them to the development of social policy in democratic Portugal and Spain. The most ambitious examination of the development of social policy in Latin America to date, Democracy and the Left shows that inequality is far from intractable—a finding with crucial policy implications worldwide.
