Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-nmvwc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-29T01:11:18.420Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

National Styles and Policy Sectors: Explaining Structured Variation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Gary P. Freeman
Affiliation:
Political Science, University of Texas at Austin

Abstract

A vigorous tradition in comparative politics argues that national policymakers develop characteristic and durable methods for dealing with public issues, that these can be linked to policy outcomes, and that they can be systematically compared. More recently, a number of scholars have suggested reversing the direction of causality, claiming that the nature of political issues themselves causes the politics associated with them. This policy sector approach implies that there should be cross-national similarities in the way issues are treated, whatever the styles particular nations adopt. The two approaches need to be integrated into a common framework built around a research strategy that investigates policymaking within specific sectors across multiple national cases. Such an approach can transcend the often sterile debate over whether the policies of nations are unique or are converging by seeking to explain how the nature of issues structures the variation among the policies of nations.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Almond, Gabriel and Coleman, James S. (eds.) (1960). The Politics of the Developing Areas. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Altenstetter, Christa (1974). Health Policy Making and Administration in West Germany and the United States. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Ambler, John S. (ed.) (1981). ‘Politicization of Higher Education in Britain and FrancePolicy Studies Journal 10:136149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambler, John S. (1985). The French Socialist Experiment. Philadelphia: ISHI.Google Scholar
Anderson, Charles W. (1971). ‘Comparative Policy Analysis: The Design of Measures.’ Comparative Politics 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Charles W. (1975). ‘System and Strategy in Comparative Policy Analysis: A Plea for Contextual and Experiential Knowledge.’ In Gwyn, William B. and Edwards, George C., III (eds.) Perspectives on Public Policymaking. New Orleans: Tulane University.Google Scholar
Anderson, Charles W. (1978). ‘The Logic of Public Problems: Evaluation in Comparative Policy Research.’ In Ashford, Douglas E. (ed.) Comparing Public Policy. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Anderson, Charles W. (1979). ‘Political Design and the Representation of Interests.’ In Schmitter, Philippe C. and Lehmbruch, Gerhard (eds.) Trends Toward Corporatist Intermediation. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Anderson, Odin W. (1972). Health Care: Can There Be Equity? New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Andrews, William G. (1982). Presidential Government in Gaullist France. Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Andrews, William G. and Hoffmann, Stanley (eds.) (1981). The Impact of the Fifth Republic on France. Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Anton, Thomas J. (1969). ‘Policy-Making and Political Culture in Sweden.’ Scandinavian Political Studies 4:88102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anton, Thomas J. (1980). Administered Politics: Elite Political Culture in Sweden. Boston: Martinus Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, Margaret (1979). Social Origins of Educational Systems. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Armstrong, John A. (1973). The European Administrative Elite. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ashford, Douglas E. (1981). Policy and Politics in Britain: The Limits of Consensus. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Ashford, Douglas E. (1982). Politics and Policy in France: Living with Uncertainty. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Banting, Keith (1979). Poverty, Politics and Policy: Britain in the 1960s. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Daniel (1973). The Coming of Post Industrial Society. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Bergsten, C. Fred (1975) Toward a New International Order. Lexington, Mass: D. C. Heath.Google Scholar
Blanpain, Jan (ed.) (1978). National Health Insurance and Health Resources: The European Experience. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bornstein, Stephen et al. , (1984). The Stale in Capitalist Europe. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Brittan, Samuel (1971). Steering the Economy: The Role of the Treasury. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Brzezinski, Zbigniew and Huntington, Samuel P. (1963). Political Power: USA/USSR. New York: The Viking Press.Google Scholar
Bunce, Valerie (1982). Executive Succession and Public Policy Under Capitalism and Socialism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cameron, David (1978). ‘The Expansion of the Public Economy: A Comparative Analysis.’ American Political Science Review 72:911932.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cameron, David (1984). ‘The Politics and Economics of the Business Cycle.’ In Ferguson, Thomas and Rogers, Joel (eds.) The Political Economy. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 237262.Google Scholar
Capelle, Jean (1967). Tomorrow's Education: The French Experience. New York: Pergamon.Google Scholar
Castles, Francis (1978). The Social Democratic Image of Society. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Castles, Francis (1981). ‘How Does Politics Matter? Structure or Agency in the Determination of Public Policy Outcomes.’ European Journal of Political Research (119131).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castles, Francis (1982). The Impact of Parties. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Cerny, Philip and Schain, Martin (eds.) (1980). French Politics and Public Policy. New York: St. Martin's.Google Scholar
Collier, David and Messick, Richard E. (1975). ‘Prerequisites versus Diffusion: Testing Alternative Explanations of Social Security Adoption.’ American Political Science Review 69:12991315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahrendorf, Ralf (1965). Society and Politics in Germany. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Dawson, Richard E. and Robinson, James A. (1963). ‘Interparty Competition, Economic Variables, and Welfare Policies in the American States.’ Journal of Politics 25:265289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derthick, Martha (1979). Policymaking for Social Security. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Dogan, Mattei (1975). The Mandarins of Western Europe. New York: Halsted.Google Scholar
Dye, Thomas R. (1966). Politics, Economics and the Public. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Easton, David (1965). A Framework for Political Analysis. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Elder, Neil et al. , (1982). The Consensual Democracies? Oxford: Martin Robertson.Google Scholar
Enloe, Cynthia H. (1975). The Politics of Pollution in Comparative Perspective. New York: McKay.Google Scholar
Eulau, Heinz and Sprague, John D. (eds.) (1964). Lawyers in Politics. Chicago: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Field, G. Lowell and Higley, John (1985). ‘After the Halcyon Years: Elites and the Political Consequences of Full Development in Western Countries.’ Paper prepared for the World Congress of the International Political Society Association, Paris, France.Google Scholar
Freeman, Gary P. (1984). ‘Do Policy Issues Determine Politics? State Pensions in Britain and America.’ Paper presented at the American Political Society Association, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Freeman, Gary P. (1979). Immigrant Labor and Racial Conflict in Industrial Societies: The French and British Experience, 1945–1975. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Freeman, Gary P. and Adams, Paul (1981). ‘Ideology and Analysis in American Social Security Policymaking.’ Journal of Social Policy 12:7595.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galbraith, John Kenneth (1967). The New Industrial State. New York: Mentor.Google Scholar
Glascr, William (1978). Health Insurance Bargaining: Foreign Lessons for America. New York: Halstead.Google Scholar
Glaser, William (1970). Paying the Doctor: Systems of Remuneration and Their Effects. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.Google Scholar
Greenberg, George D. et al. , (1977). ‘Developing Public Policy Theory: Perspectives from Empirical Research.’ American Political Science Review 71:15321543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guttsman, W. L. (1963). The British Political Elite. London: MacGibbon and Kee.Google Scholar
Hancock, M. Donald (1983). ‘Comparative Public Policy: An Assessment.’ In Finifter, Ada W. (ed.) Political Science: The State of the Discipline. Washington, D.C: American Political Science Association.Google Scholar
Hayward, Jack (1982). ‘Mobilizing Private Interests in the Service of Public Ambitions: The Salient Element in the Dual French Policy Style?’ In Richardson, Jeremy (ed.) Policy Styles in Western Europe. London: George Allen and Unwin, pp. 111140.Google Scholar
Hayward, Jack and Watson, Michael (eds.) (1975). Planning, Politics and Public Policy: The British, French, and Italian Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Heclo, Hugh (1974). Modern Social Politics in Britain and Sweden. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Heclo, Hugh (1983). ‘Toward a New Welfare State?’ In Flora, Peter and Heidenheimer, Arnold J. (eds.) The Development of Welfare States in Europe and America. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Heidenheimer, Arnold J. (1983). ‘Education and Social Security Entitlements in Europe and America.’ In Flora, Peter and Heidenheimer, Arnold J. (eds.) The Development of Welfare States in Europe and America. New Brunswick: Transaction Books, pp. 269304.Google Scholar
Heidenheimer, Arnold J., Heclo, Hugh, and Adams, Carolyn (1983). Comparative Public Policy, 2nd Edition. New York: St. Martin's.Google Scholar
Heidenheimer, Arnold J. and Johansen, Lars (1985). ‘Organized Medicine and Scandinavian Professional Unionism: Hospital Policies and Exit Options in Denmark and Sweden.’ Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law 10:2, 347370.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hibbs, Douglas A. (1977). ‘Political Parties and Macroeconomic Policy.’ American Political Science Review 71:14671487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofferbert, Richard (1966). ‘The Relation Between Public Policy and Some Structural and Environmental Variables in the American States.’ American Political Science Review 60:7382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaeble, Hartmut (1983). ‘Educational Opportunities and Government Policies in Europe in the Period of Industrialization.’ In Flora, Peter and Heidenheimer, Arnold J. (eds.) The Development of Welfare States in Europe and America. New Brunswick: Transaction Books, pp. 239268.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter J. (ed.) (1978). Between Power and Plenty: The Foreign Economic Policies of the Advanced Industrial States. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Kelman, Steven (1981). Regulating America, Regulating Sweden: A Comparative Study of Occupational Safety and Health Legislation Policy. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Keohane, Robert O. and Nye, Joseph G. (1977). Power and Independence: World Politics in Transition. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Kerr, Clark (1983). The Future of Industrial Societies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerr, Clark et al. , (1962). Industrialism and Industrial Man. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
King, Anthony (1973). ‘Ideas, Institutions and the Policies of Governments: A Comparative Analysis, I and II.’ British Journal of Political Science 3:291313, 409–423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirschen, E. S. et al. , (1964). Economic Policy in Our Time. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Kjellberg, Francesco (1977). ‘Do Policies (Really) Determine Politics? And Eventually How?Policy Studies Journal 5:554570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korpi, Walter (1983). The Democratic Class Struggle. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Kuisel, Richard F. (1981). Capitalism and the State in Modern France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kuttner, Robert (1984). The Economic Illusion: False Choices Between Prosperity and Social Justice. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Lehmbruch, Gerhard and Schmitter, Philippe (eds.) (1982). Patterns of Corporatist Policy-Making. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Leichter, Howard M. (1979). 4 Comparative Approach to Policy Analysis: Health Care Policy in Four Nations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Leman, Christopher (1980). The Collapse of Welfare Reform: Political Institutions, Policy, and the Poor in Canada and the United States. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Lester Smith, W. O. (1965). Government of Education. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin.Google Scholar
Lockhart, Charles (1984). ‘Explaining Social Policy Differences Among Advanced Industrial Societies.’ Comparative Politics 16:335350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowi, TheodoreJ. (1964). ‘American Business, Public Policy, Case-Studies, and Political Theory.’ World Politics 6:677715.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundqvist, Lennart J. (1973). ‘Crisis, Change, and Public Policy: Considerations for a Comparative Analysis of Environmental Policies.’ European Journal of Political Research 1:133162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McConnell, Grant (1966). Private Power and American Democracy. New York: Vintage Books.Google Scholar
Maier, Charles (1978). ‘The Politics of Productivity: Foundations of American International Economic Policy After World War II.’ In Katzenstein, Peter J. (ed.) Between Power and Plenty. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Malloy, James (1983). ‘Statecraft and Social Insurance Policy and Crisis: A Comparison of Latin America and the United States.’ In Mesa-Lago, Carmelo (ed.) The Crisis of Social Security and Health Care: Latin American Experiences and Lessons. Pittsburgh: Center for Latin American Studies, University of Pittsburgh (2150).Google Scholar
Mayntz, Renate and Scharpf, Fritz W. (1975). Policy-Making in the German Federal Bureaucracy. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Miliband, Ralph (1969). The State in Capitalist Society. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Moynihan, Daniel Patrick (1969). Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Myles, John (1984). Old Age in the Welfare State: The Political Economy of Public Pensions. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Nelson, Daniel N. (1978). ‘Political Convergence: An Empirical Assessment.’ World Politics 30:411431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, James (1973). The Fiscal Crisis of the State. New York: St. Martin's.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OECD (1977). Old Age Pension Schemes. Paris.Google Scholar
OECD (1985). Social Expenditure, 1960–1990. Paris.Google Scholar
Olson, Mancur (1965). The Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, Mancur (1982). The Rise and Decline of Nations. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Pempel, T. J. (1985). Politics and Policy in Japan. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Peters, B. Guy, Doughtie, John C. and McCulloch, M. Kathleen (1977). ‘Types of Democratic Systems and Types of Public Policy.’ Comparative Politics 9:327355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, Paul E. (1985). The Politics of School Reform: 1870–1940. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Porter, Bruce D. (1980). ‘Parkinson's Law Revisited: War and the Growth of American Government.’ The Public Interest 60.Google Scholar
Powell, G. Bingham (1982). Contemporary Democracies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
President's Commission on Pensions Policy (1980). An International Comparison of Pension Systems. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Pryor, Frederick L. (1968). Public Expenditures in Communist and Capitalist Nations. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. (1973). ‘The Political Attitudes of Senior Civil Servants in Western Europe.’ British Journal of Political Science 3:257–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, Jeremy (ed.) (1982). Policy Styles in Western Europe. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Richardson, Jeremy, Gustaffson, G. and Jordan, G. (1982). ‘The Concept of Policy Style’. In Richardson, (ed.) (1982).Google Scholar
Rimlinger, Gaston V. (1971). Industrialization and Welfare Policy in Europe, America, and Russia. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Rose, Richard (1984). Do Parties Make a Difference? 2nd Edition. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, Richard (1984a). Comparative Policy Analysis: The Programme Approach. Glasgow: Centre for the Study of Public Policy, University of Strathclyde, Studies in Public Policy 138.Google Scholar
Rose, Richard (1984b). ‘The State's Contribution to the Welfare Mix.’ Presented to a Conference on the Welfare State and the Future, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Rose, Richard (1985). ‘The Programme Approach to the Growth of Government.’ British Journal of Political Science 15:128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, Mark (1978). ‘Transnational Relations and Social Security Policy Making in Latin America.’ Presented to International Studies Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Ruin, Olof (1970). ‘Sweden in the 1970s: Policy-Making Becomes More Difficult.’ In Richardson, Jeremy (ed.) Policy Styles in Western Europe. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Salisbury, Robert H. (1968). ‘The Analysis of Public Policy: A Search for Theories and Roles.’ In Ranney, Austin (ed.) Political Science and Public Policy. Chicago: Markham Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Scase, Richard (1980). The State in Western Europe. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Manfred (1982). ‘The Role of the Parties in Shaping Macroeconomic Policy.’ In Castles, Francis (ed.) The Impact of Parties. Beverly Hills: London, pp. 97176.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Manfred (1984). ‘The Politics of Unemployment: Rates of Unemployment and Labor Market Policy.’ West European Politics 7:524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitter, Philippe (1981). ‘Interest Intermediation and Regime Governability in Contemporary Western Europe and North America.’ In Berger, Suzanne (ed.) Organizing Interests in Western Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 287330.Google Scholar
Schmitter, Philippe and Lehmbruch, Gerhard (eds.) (1979). Trends Toward Corporatist Intermediation. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Schultze, Charles L. (1977). The Public Use of Private Power. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Shalev, Michael (1983). ‘The Social Democratic Model and Beyond: Two ‘Generations’ of Comparative Research on the Welfare State.’ In Tomasson, Richard F. (ed.) Comparative Social Research 6:315351.Google Scholar
Sharpe, L. J. (1975). ‘The Social Scientist and Policy-Making: Some Cautionary Thoughts and Transatlantic Reflections.’ Policy and Politics 4:735.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shon, Donald (1971). Beyond the Stable State. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Shonfield, Andrew (1965). Modem Capitalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda (1981). ‘Political Response to Capitalist Crisis: Neo-Marxist Theories of the State and the Case of the New Deal.’ Politics and Society 10:2, 155201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skocpol, Theda and Ikenberry, John (1983). ‘The Political Formation of the American Welfare State in Historical and Comparative Perspective.’ Comparative Social Research 6:87148.Google Scholar
Smith, T. Alexander (1975). The Comparative Policy Process. Santa Barbara, California: Clio Books.Google Scholar
Steinberger, Peter J. (1980). ‘Typologies of Public Policy: Meaning Construction and the Policy Process.’ Social Science Quarterly 60:185207.Google Scholar
Stephens, John D. (1979). The Transition from Capitalism to Socialism. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Straussman, Jeffrey (1978). The Limits of Technocratic Politics. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Suleiman, Ezra N. (1974). Politics, Power, and Bureaucracy in France. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Suleiman, Ezra N. (1978). Elites in French Society: The Politics of Survival. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, Norman C. (1983). ‘Policy Responses to Economic Stress in the United States, Britain, and Canada: A Comparative Case Analysis.’ Paper presented at the American Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Tomasson, Richard F. (1984). ‘Government Old Age Pensions Under Affluence and Austerity: West Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, and the United States.’ Research in Social Problems and Public Policy 3:217272.Google Scholar
United States, Department of Health and Human Services (1984). Social Security Programs Around the World – 1983. Washington, D.C.: GPO.Google Scholar
Vickers, Geoffrey (1965). The Art of Judgment. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Waltman, Jerold L. (1980). Copying Other Nation's Policies. Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman.Google Scholar
Wedderburn, Dorothy (1965). ‘Facts and Theories of the Welfare State.’ Socialist Register. London: Merlin Press.Google Scholar
Wilensky, Harold L. (1975). The Welfare State and Equality. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wilensky, Harold L. (1976). The ‘New Corporatism,’ Centralization and the Welfare State. Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Wilensky, Harold L. (1981). ‘Leftism, Catholicism, and Democratic Corporatism: The Role of Political Parties in Recent Welfare State Development.’ In Flora, Peter and Heidenheimer, Arnold J. (eds.) The Development of Welfare States in Europe and America. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Wilensky, Harold L. (1983). Political Legitimacy and Consensus: Missing Variables in the Assessment of Social Policy. Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, Berkeley, Reprint No. 453.Google Scholar
Wilson, James Q. (1974). Political Organizations. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Wilson, James Q. (ed.) (1981). The Politics of Regulation. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Wilson, Thomas (ed.) (1974). Pensions, Inflation and Growth. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Wilson, Woodrow (1898). The State: Elements of Historical and Practical Politics. Boston: D. C. Heath.Google Scholar