Middle Class and Welfare State

Middle Class and Welfare State PDF Author: Marlon Barbehön
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000059707
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This book examines the relationship between the middle class and the welfare state. Taking an interpretive approach which understands the middle class as a socially constructed category, it combines discourse analysis, welfare state theory, and interpretive policy analysis in an innovative way to investigate how the middle class becomes a meaningful object of public debates and policymaking. Comparing Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, the book reconstructs the prevalent images and meanings of the middle class from each country’s public debates and tracks how the middle classes with their various meanings and characteristics are entangled with the identification of societal problems, the articulation of political demands, and the construction of welfare policies. Ultimately, it shows how the formation and consolidation of different welfare regimes can be interpreted as specific ways of solving the puzzle of how to incorporate the middle class in the construction of a welfare state consensus. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of comparative welfare state research, policy analysis, political sociology, political theory, and European and comparative politics.

Middle Class and Welfare State

Middle Class and Welfare State PDF Author: Marlon Barbehön
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000059707
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book

Book Description
This book examines the relationship between the middle class and the welfare state. Taking an interpretive approach which understands the middle class as a socially constructed category, it combines discourse analysis, welfare state theory, and interpretive policy analysis in an innovative way to investigate how the middle class becomes a meaningful object of public debates and policymaking. Comparing Germany, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, the book reconstructs the prevalent images and meanings of the middle class from each country’s public debates and tracks how the middle classes with their various meanings and characteristics are entangled with the identification of societal problems, the articulation of political demands, and the construction of welfare policies. Ultimately, it shows how the formation and consolidation of different welfare regimes can be interpreted as specific ways of solving the puzzle of how to incorporate the middle class in the construction of a welfare state consensus. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of comparative welfare state research, policy analysis, political sociology, political theory, and European and comparative politics.

Not Only the Poor

Not Only the Poor PDF Author: Robert E Goodin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429942354
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
Originally published in 1987 Not Only the Poor explores the self-interested involvement of the non-poor in the welfare state, particularly the middle class. Using evidence from Britain, America, and Australia, they show that the non-poor were crucial in the founding of the welfare state, and in all three countries the non-poor benefit extensively from key welfare programmes, including those ostensibly targeted on the poor. Goodin and Le Grand conclude that the beneficial involvement of the non-poor in the welfare state is probably inevitable, but this may be no bad thing, depending on the alternative and on the nature of the egalitarian ideal adopted.

The Welfare of the Middle Class

The Welfare of the Middle Class PDF Author: Remo Siza
Publisher: Policy Press
ISBN: 1447360001
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
In many European countries, processes of individualisation have contributed to transforming the middle class into a multitude of people, a sort of ‘middle mass’ with an unstable social identity and radical activism. The different ‘worlds’ of European welfare states seem progressively less able to manage this new kind of middle-class activism. This book is an essential contribution to ongoing public and academic debates on the unpredictability of middle-class attitudes and on their changing relations with the welfare state. Identifying key trends in the literature, it considers the impact of recent welfare reforms on the needs and preferences of the middle class.

Age, Class, Politics, and the Welfare State

Age, Class, Politics, and the Welfare State PDF Author: Fred C. Pampel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521437912
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Detailed analysis of data from the UN, ILO, and the World Bank leads to the conclusion that a large aged population, especially in combination with democratic political processes, has a direct and crucial influence on the level of welfare expenditures.

Caring Capitalism

Caring Capitalism PDF Author: Ronald M. Glassman
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0333985427
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Everywhere one travels in the world, people are excited about the new high technology production system. But the global villagers are also perplexed about the new social service needs that seem to accompany the high-tech economy: child care needs for working couples, elder care facilities for infirm senior citizens, burgeoning health care costs accompanying high-tech medicine, nursery school and college tuition costs, and more. There has been a global response to these social service needs, and this book will present and analyse that response. For, a new phenomenon may be emerging, as contradictory as it may appear, a kind of 'caring capitalism' may arise, worldwide. This book explores the various attempts around the globe to create a system of 'caring capitalism' and why nations have been pressured by the 'new middle class' to do so.

The Welfare State: No Mercy for the Middle Class

The Welfare State: No Mercy for the Middle Class PDF Author: John McKay
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description


American Society

American Society PDF Author: Joseph Bensman
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN:
Category : Middle class
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description


The Submerged State

The Submerged State PDF Author: Suzanne Mettler
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226521664
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
“Keep your government hands off my Medicare!” Such comments spotlight a central question animating Suzanne Mettler’s provocative and timely book: why are many Americans unaware of government social benefits and so hostile to them in principle, even though they receive them? The Obama administration has been roundly criticized for its inability to convey how much it has accomplished for ordinary citizens. Mettler argues that this difficulty is not merely a failure of communication; rather it is endemic to the formidable presence of the “submerged state.” In recent decades, federal policymakers have increasingly shunned the outright disbursing of benefits to individuals and families and favored instead less visible and more indirect incentives and subsidies, from tax breaks to payments for services to private companies. These submerged policies, Mettler shows, obscure the role of government and exaggerate that of the market. As a result, citizens are unaware not only of the benefits they receive, but of the massive advantages given to powerful interests, such as insurance companies and the financial industry. Neither do they realize that the policies of the submerged state shower their largest benefits on the most affluent Americans, exacerbating inequality. Mettler analyzes three Obama reforms—student aid, tax relief, and health care—to reveal the submerged state and its consequences, demonstrating how structurally difficult it is to enact policy reforms and even to obtain public recognition for achieving them. She concludes with recommendations for reform to help make hidden policies more visible and governance more comprehensible to all Americans. The sad truth is that many American citizens do not know how major social programs work—or even whether they benefit from them. Suzanne Mettler’s important new book will bring government policies back to the surface and encourage citizens to reclaim their voice in the political process.

Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle Class

Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle Class PDF Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 926415034X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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Book Description
Middle-class households feel left behind and have questioned the benefits of economic globalisation.

Not Only the Poor

Not Only the Poor PDF Author: Robert E. Goodin
Publisher: London ; Boston : Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9780043360941
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251

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Book Description