The Politics of Justification
Free
Description
Contents
Reviews
Language
English
ISBN
Unknown
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
1 Introduction
The arguments in brief
The structure of the book
2 From theories of expansion to theories of retrenchment
Theories of welfare-state expansion
Theories of welfare-state retrenchment
3 A framework for government choice on retrenchment
Political parties: their objectives and incentives for retrenchment
A justification strategy of blame avoidance
Systems of party competition and their effects on the possibilities of pursuing
Connection to the labour market: which social-security schemes will be retrenched the most?
The theoretical argument in brief
4 Research strategy and research design
Denmark and the Netherlands – a most similar systems design
The choice of social-security schemes
The choice of time period
Definition and measurement of retrenchment
Some hypotheses
5 Retrenchments in Denmark and the Netherlands
Retrenchment in Denmark and the Netherlands
Actual variation in extent of retrenchment
The match between the actual and expected variation in retrenchment
6 Dutch Politics and welfare-state retrenchment. How party competition produced consensus
Depillarisation and fumbling response to the oil crises
The first and second Lubbers governments: No-nonsense policy and an emerging consensus
The third Lubbers government: WAO affair and the fall of the CDA
Purple governments: centrist policy without the CDA
The Dutch case – a general view
7 Danish politics and welfare-state retrenchment:The difficulties of a right-wing government and the possibilities of a left-wing government
Landslide election and fumbling socio-economic policy
Right-wing governments and the difficulties of welfare-state retrenchment
1993-1998: the possibilities of social democratic-led governments
The Danish case – a general view
8 The evidence on balance and some quibbles
The empirical support for the framework on balance
Alternative explanations
Balance
9 Party politics matter – summary and implications
The main findings
The implications for the retrenchment debate
The politics of miracles and the dilemmas of European Social Democracy
Appendix
Summary
Notes
References
Index
The book hasn't received reviews yet.