The politics of welfare state reform in continental Europe : modernization in hard times / Silja Häusermann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Häusermann, Silja, author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in comparative politics.

Cambridge studies in comparative politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pensions--Government policy--France.

Pensions.

Pensions--Government policy--Germany.

Pensions--Government policy--Switzerland.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 276 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book challenges existing theories of welfare state change by analyzing pension reforms in France, Germany, and Switzerland between 1970 and 2004. It explains why all three countries were able to adopt far-reaching reforms, adapting their pension regimes to both financial austerity and new social risks. In a radical departure from the neo-institutionalist emphasis on policy stability, the book argues that socio-structural change has led to a multidimensional pension reform agenda. A variety of cross-cutting lines of political conflict, emerging from the transition to a post-industrial economy, allowed governments to engage in strategies of political exchange and coalition-building, fostering broad cross-class coalitions in support of major reform packages. Methodologically, the book proposes a novel strategy to analyze lines of conflict, configurations of political actors, and coalitional dynamics over time. This strategy combines quantitative analyses of actor configurations based on coded policy positions with in-depth case studies.

Contents:

"Eppur si muove" : welfare state change despite institutional inertia

Modernization in hard times : the post-industrial politics of continental welfare state reform

A new reform agenda : old age security in the post-industrial era

Changing alliances : conflict lines and actor configurations

Reform outputs : strategies of coalitional engineering

France : trade union fragmentation as an opportunity for reform

Germany : institutional obstacles to multidimensional reform politics

Switzerland : recalibration as an enabling mechanism of pension compromises

Conclusion : reform outputs and political implications.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-266) and index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-20436-4

0-511-84729-7

1-282-63063-6

9786612630637

0-511-74984-8

0-511-74909-0

0-511-74329-7

0-511-74222-3

0-511-75058-7

0-511-74437-4

OCLC:

638859689