Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Welfare State
- 3 The Logics of the Welfare State
- 4 Welfare State Regimes
- 5 What Do Welfare States Actually Do?
- 6 Toward an Open Functional Approach to Welfare State Reform
- 7 Why Do We Need to Reform the Welfare State?
- 8 Why Do We Need to Reform the Welfare State?
- 9 Why and How Do Politicians and Governments Pursue Risky Reforms?
- 10 Can and Will the Welfare State Survive the Great Recession?
- References
- Index
1 - Introduction
The Political Opportunities and Constraints of Welfare State Reform
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables and Figures
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Welfare State
- 3 The Logics of the Welfare State
- 4 Welfare State Regimes
- 5 What Do Welfare States Actually Do?
- 6 Toward an Open Functional Approach to Welfare State Reform
- 7 Why Do We Need to Reform the Welfare State?
- 8 Why Do We Need to Reform the Welfare State?
- 9 Why and How Do Politicians and Governments Pursue Risky Reforms?
- 10 Can and Will the Welfare State Survive the Great Recession?
- References
- Index
Summary
Big Questions
Thursday, 1 December 2011: in Greece schools are closed, hospitals are staffed with emergency personnel, and public transport has come to a near standstill as a result of the first strike against a new and broad coalition government, which aims to push through a tough retrenchment and welfare state restructuring program in an attempt to come to terms with the country’s sovereign debt crisis.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011: 29 unions in the United Kingdom (UK) organize one of the biggest nationwide strikes in 30 years. Approximately 2 million public sector workers block services (including hospitals and schools) as a protest against the government’s plan to retrench pensions.
Sunday, 20 November 2011: the new Danish center-left government presents a budget plan that proposes public investments to kick start the economy and major reforms in active labor market policies to fight unemployment. Following tradition, the main opposition party supports the law.
Wednesday, 16 November 2011: United States (US) senator Bernie Sanders gives a remarkable speech, which is worth quoting at some length:
There is a war going on in this country.… I am talking about a war being waged by some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in this country against the working families of the United States of America, against the disappearing and shrinking middle class of our country. The reality is that many of the nation’s billionaires are on the warpath, they want more, more, more. Their greed has no end.… The reality is that many of these folks [the wealthy] want to bring the United States back to where we were in the 1920s. And they want to do their best to eliminate all traces of social legislation, which working families fought tooth and nail to develop to bring a modicum of stability and security to their lives.… While we struggle with a record breaking deficit and a large national debt, caused by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, caused by tax breaks for the wealthy … caused by the Wall Street bailout, driving up the deficit, driving up the national debt, so that people can say oh my goodness, we have got all of those expenses and then we got to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires, but we want to balance the budget.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Comparative Welfare State PoliticsDevelopment, Opportunities, and Reform, pp. 1 - 9Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013