1st Edition

The Politics of Post-Industrial Welfare States Adapting Post-War Social Policies to New Social Risks

Edited By Klaus Armingeon, Giuliano Bonoli Copyright 2006
    312 Pages
    by Routledge

    312 Pages
    by Routledge

    This new study assesses the welfare state to ask key questions and draw new conclusions about its place in modern society.

    It shows how the welfare states that we have inherited from the early post-war years had one main objective: to protect the income of the male breadwinner. Today, however, massive social change, in particular the shift from industrial to post-industrial societies and economies, have resulted in new demands being put on welfare states. These demands originate from situations that are typical of the new family and labour market structures that have become widespread in western countries since the 1970s and 1980s, characterised by the clear prevalence of service employment and by the massive entry of women in the labour market.

    Against this background, this book:

    * presents a precise and clear definition of 'new social risks'. A concept being increasingly used in welfare state literature. 

    * focuses on the groups that are mostly exposed to new social risks (women, the young, the low-skilled) in order to study their political behaviour.

    * assesses policymaking processes that can lead to successful adaptation. It covers key areas such as child care, care for elderly people, adapting pensions to atypical career patterns, active labour market policies, and policy making at the EU level.

    This book will be of great interest for all students and scholars of politics, sociology and the welfare state in particular.

    PART I: POLITICS OF NEW SOCIAL RISK

    1 New social risks and the politics of post-industrial social policies

    Giuliano Bonoli

    2 Political parties and new social risks: The double backlash against Social Democracy and Christian Democracy

    Hans Keman, Kees van Kersbergen and Barbara Vis

    3 New social risk and political preferences

    Herbert Kitschelt and Philipp Rehm

    4 Public attitudes and new social risk reform

    Johannes Kananen, Peter Taylor-Gooby and Trine P. Larsen

    5 Reconciling competing claims of the welfare state clientele. The politics of old and new social risk coverage in comparative perspective

    Klaus Armingeon

    6 Trade union movements in post-industrial welfare states. Opening up to new social interests?

    Bernhard Ebbinghaus

    7 Combatting old and new social risks

    Evelyn Huber and John D. Stephens

    Part 2: PATTERNS OF POLICY ADAPTATION

    8 New social risks and pension reform in Germany and Sweden: The politics of pension rights for child care

    Karen M. Anderson and Traute Meyer

    9 New labour market risks and the revision of unemployment protection systems in Europe

    Jochen Clasen and Daniel Clegg

    10 Child care policies in diverse European welfare states: Switzerland, Sweden, France and Britain

    Anne Daguerre

    11 Providing coverage against new social risks in Bismarckian welfare states: The case of long term care

    Nathalie Morel

    12 The EU and New Social Risks: The Need for a Differentiated Evaluation

    Oliver Treib and Gerda Falkner

    Biography

    Klaus Armingeon, Giuliano Bonoli

    'A coherent collection of comparative chapters which cover either all or a sample of advanced industrial democracies.' - International Social Security Review, Vol. 59

    'Concerntrates on the process of adapting welfare states to changing structures of social risks. First, looks at how those who are most exposed to the new risks (women, the young, low-skilled workers) mobilize in the political arena and examines their demands, then moves on to analyze specific instances of welfare state adaptation in the fields of care policy, pensions and labour market policies.'

    - International Social Security Review, Vol. 59