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Reforming European Welfare States Germany and the United Kingdom Compared

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This book is available in Oxford Scholarship Online - view abstracts and keywords at book and chapter level.

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Comparative Politics

Political Economy

Public Administration

Reforming European Welfare States

Germany and the United Kingdom Compared

Jochen Clasen

272 pages | numerous tables and graphs | 234x156mm

978-0-19-927071-2 | Hardback | 25 August 2005

Also available as: Paperback

Price: £86.00

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Welfare state reform is currently at the top of the political agenda across Europe
First book-length comparison of the UK and Germany as two large, but highly distinct, European welfare states spanning a 25-year period
Systematic comparison of policy change in the UK and Germany across three core domains: unemployment support, public pensions, and family policy

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 contextualized 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.

Readership: Scholars and students of Politics and Economics, especially those with an interest in Political Economy, Social Policy, Comparative Politics, Globalization, Public Policy, and Public Administration

The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.

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Reforming European Welfare States

Germany and the United Kingdom Compared

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