Postcommunist Welfare States

Postcommunist Welfare States PDF Author: Linda J. Cook
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801458234
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
In the early 1990s, the countries of the former Soviet Bloc faced an urgent need to reform the systems by which they delivered broad, basic social welfare to their citizens. Inherited systems were inefficient and financially unsustainable. Linda J. Cook here explores the politics and policy of social welfare from 1990 to 2004 in the Russian Federation, Poland, Hungary, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Most of these countries, she shows, tried to institute reforms based on a liberal paradigm of reduced entitlements and subsidies, means-testing, and privatization. But these proposals provoked opposition from pro-welfare interests, and the politics of negotiating change varied substantially from one political arena to another. In Russia, for example, liberalizing reform was blocked for a decade. Only as Vladimir Putin rose to power did the country change its inherited welfare system. Cook finds that the impact of economic pressures on welfare was strongly mediated by domestic political factors, including the level of democratization and balance of pro- and anti-reform political forces. Postcommunist welfare politics throughout Russia and Eastern Europe, she shows, are marked by the large role played by bureaucratic welfare stakeholders who were left over from the communist period and, in weak states, by the development of informal processes in social sectors.

Postcommunist Welfare States

Postcommunist Welfare States PDF Author: Linda J. Cook
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801458234
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
In the early 1990s, the countries of the former Soviet Bloc faced an urgent need to reform the systems by which they delivered broad, basic social welfare to their citizens. Inherited systems were inefficient and financially unsustainable. Linda J. Cook here explores the politics and policy of social welfare from 1990 to 2004 in the Russian Federation, Poland, Hungary, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. Most of these countries, she shows, tried to institute reforms based on a liberal paradigm of reduced entitlements and subsidies, means-testing, and privatization. But these proposals provoked opposition from pro-welfare interests, and the politics of negotiating change varied substantially from one political arena to another. In Russia, for example, liberalizing reform was blocked for a decade. Only as Vladimir Putin rose to power did the country change its inherited welfare system. Cook finds that the impact of economic pressures on welfare was strongly mediated by domestic political factors, including the level of democratization and balance of pro- and anti-reform political forces. Postcommunist welfare politics throughout Russia and Eastern Europe, she shows, are marked by the large role played by bureaucratic welfare stakeholders who were left over from the communist period and, in weak states, by the development of informal processes in social sectors.

Working Mothers and the Welfare State

Working Mothers and the Welfare State PDF Author: Kimberly J. Morgan
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804754149
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
This book explains why countries have adopted different policies for working parents through a comparative historical study of four nations: France, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States.

Welfare and the Welfare State

Welfare and the Welfare State PDF Author: Bent Greve
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317643933
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
The welfare state plays a key role in people’s everyday lives in developed societies. At the same time, the welfare state is contested and there are constant discussions on how and to what degree the state should intervene, influence and have an impact on the development of society. Recent years have seen an accelerated transformation of the welfare state in the light of the global financial crisis, demographic change and changes in the perception of the state’s role in relation to social welfare. This raises fundamentally new issues related to social policy and welfare state analysis. This book provides: an introduction to the principles of welfare a conceptual framework necessary for understanding social policy at the macro-level a comparative approach to welfare states globally an overview of new ways to organise and steer welfare states an introduction to welfare state politics and underlying economic framework an account of equality and inequality in modern societies new directions for welfare states The book’s focus on core concepts and the variety of international welfare state regimes and mechanisms for delivering social policy provides a much needed introduction to the rapidly changing concept of welfare for students on social policy, social studies, sociology and politics courses.

The Political Sociology of the Welfare State

The Political Sociology of the Welfare State PDF Author: Edited by Stefan Svallfors
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804768153
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
A comparative analysis of the political attitudes, values, aspirations, and identities of citizens in advanced industrial societies, this book focusses on the different ways in which social policies and national politics affect personal opinions on justice, political responsibility, and the overall trustworthiness of politicians.

The Welfare Experiments

The Welfare Experiments PDF Author: Robin H. Rogers-Dillon
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804767033
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
Welfare experiments conducted at the state level during the 1990s radically restructured the American welfare state and have played a critical—and unexpected—role in the broader policymaking process. Through these experiments, previously unpopular reform ideas, such as welfare time limits, gained wide and enthusiastic support. Ultimately, the institutional legacy of the old welfare system was broken, new ideas took hold, and the welfare experiments generated a new institutional channel in policymaking. In this book, Rogers-Dillon argues that these welfare experiments were not simply scientific experiments, as their supporters frequently contend, but a powerful political tool that created a framework within which few could argue successfully against the welfare policy changes. Legislation proposed in 2002 formalized this channel of policymaking, permitting the executive, as opposed to legislative, branches of federal and state governments to renegotiate social policies—an unprecedented change in American policymaking. This book provides unique insight into how social policy is made in the United States, and how that process is changing.

The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism

The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism PDF Author: Gosta Esping-Andersen
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745666752
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
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.

Gender Inequality and Welfare States in Europe

Gender Inequality and Welfare States in Europe PDF Author: Mary Daly
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1788111265
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Gender equality has been one of the defining projects of European welfarestates. It has proven an elusive goal, not just because of political opposition but also due to a lack of clarity in how to best frame equality and take account of family-related considerations. This wide-ranging book assembles the most pertinent literature and evidence to provide a critical understanding of how contemporary state policies engage with gender inequalities.

Free Labor

Free Labor PDF Author: John Krinsky
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226453677
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
One of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s proudest accomplishments is his expansion of the Work Experience Program, which uses welfare recipients to do routine work once done by unionized city workers. The fact that WEP workers are denied the legal status of employees and make far less money and enjoy fewer rights than do city workers has sparked fierce opposition. For antipoverty activists, legal advocates, unions, and other critics of the program this double standard begs a troubling question: are workfare participants workers or welfare recipients? At times the fight over workfare unfolded as an argument over who had the authority to define these terms, and in Free Labor, John Krinsky focuses on changes in the language and organization of the political coalitions on either side of the debate. Krinsky’s broadly interdisciplinary analysis draws from interviews, official documents, and media reports to pursue new directions in the study of the cultural and cognitive aspects of political activism. Free Labor will instigate a lively dialogue among students of culture, labor and social movements, welfare policy, and urban political economy.

Review of Stefan Svallfors "Contested Welfare States: Welfare Attitudes in Europe and Beyond"

Review of Stefan Svallfors Author: Hannes Oswald
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3346809404
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 11

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Book Description
Literature Review from the year 2022 in the subject Politics - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,7, Sciences Po Paris, Dijon, Nancy, Poitier, Menton, Havre, course: Seminar: Political Economy of Welfare State Transformations: Comparative Institutional Analysis, language: English, abstract: The book "Contested Welfare States: Welfare Attitudes in Europe and Beyond" by Stefan Svallfors analyses the results of a broad research program on attitudes towards welfare policies across European countries. In eight chapters, the relationship between individual-level and country-level variables and their impact on attitudes toward and evaluations of welfare policies is explored. There are six research projects included in the book. Five of them focus on the European case, while the last one points out differences in welfare state attitudes between Europe and the United States. A comparative analysis can be conducted because cross-national data on attitudes towards the welfare state have recently become available. All of the research projects in the book are based on the module Welfare Attitudes in a Changing Europe of the 2008 European Social Survey. It is assumed that the data is comparable because the questionnaire, although translated into the local language, is the same for all participating countries.

Welfare and the Welfare State

Welfare and the Welfare State PDF Author: Bent Greve
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000764656
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
The welfare state is still very much central in people’s everyday lives. The welfare state is at the same time contested and debated, and has often been argued to be in a crisis not only in the wake of the financial crisis. Welfare and welfare states used to be a national issue and prerogative. Today welfare and welfare states are influenced by national as well as regional and global decisions. However, nation states play a decisive role influenced by national preferences and ideas, and, in recent years, populism and welfare chauvinism. This book provides an overview of the central concepts through the lenses of the state, market and civil society. It also provides the reader with knowledge on distribution in societies and how this interacts and influences different groups and their position in society. There are also chapters dealing specifically with central sectors in the welfare states such as health, long-term care and education. The book uses a comparative approach as this better enables one to understand one’s own country's welfare, as well as helping to underline and see the linkages to the impact of global and regional issues on welfare states and their development. Finally, the book presents challenges and future perspectives for welfare states and their development. The book’s focus on core concepts and the variety of international welfare state regimes and mechanisms for delivering social policy provides a much-needed introduction to the rapidly changing concept of welfare for students on social policy, social studies, sociology and politics courses.