This comprehensive Handbook examines the capacity of advanced welfare states to adapt to sustained pressures and unforeseen crises. It explores the enduring relevance of established frameworks in explaining welfare state change as well as their effectiveness in addressing essential areas for reform.
Experts discuss reform patterns and trajectories across key policy domains, reflecting on governance models and political dynamics. They assess the mechanisms that shape reforms, such as public attitudes, organized interests, electoral politics, policy learning, and international multi-level governance. With a focus on Europe and further OECD countries, chapters conduct detailed process-tracing of major social policy topics, from pensions and healthcare to education, the reconfiguration of EU social policy and housing policy. The Handbook surveys advancements in both traditional and emerging methodologies for analysing reform processes, demonstrating the evolution of the field and suggesting future research paths in the age of polycrisis.
Students and scholars of comparative social policy, welfare economics and welfare states will greatly benefit from this informative Handbook. It is also an essential resource for those studying comparative politics, political economy and contemporary social history.
Contents
List of Tables viii
List of Figures x
Contributors list xi
Acknowledgments xiv
1 Welfare state reform in the age of polycrisis: An introduction 1
Bernhard Ebbinghaus and Moira Nelson
PART I THEORETICAL LENSES
2 Exogenous and endogenous challenges to the welfare state 11
Herbert Obinger
3 Ideas and welfare state reform 25
Daniel Béland and Ronen Mandelkern
4 Mobilization from below facing welfare state reforms 37
Benedikt Bender and Bernhard Ebbinghaus
5 Growth regimes and welfare state reforms 51
Anke Hassel and Pit Jasper Lee
6 New Politics revisited: From path dependency to path departure 66
Carsten Jensen and Georg Wenzelburger
7 Political institutions and the welfare state 79
Johannes Lindvall
8 Welfare state governance: Going beyond New Public
Management? 91
Tanja Klenk
PART II METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES
9 Measuring welfare state change 107
Jon Kvist
10 From case-study designs to process-tracing 121
Cyril Benoît and Marek Naczyk
11 Comparing welfare states and their reforms 136
Bernhard Ebbinghaus
12 Pooled time-series and other macro-indicator analyses 150
Carina Schmitt and Kathrin D. Fiedler
13 Longitudinal and life course analyses with individual panel data 164
Katja Möhring and Andreas P. Weiland
14 Studying public attitudes to welfare state reform with survey
research 180
Elias Naumann
15 Computational social science approaches to studying welfare state
reforms 195
Sebastian Stier, Alexander Horn and Jan Schwalbach
PART III REFORM POLICY AREAS
16 Towards social investment in education and training 209
Ilze Plavgo and Niccolo Durazzi
17 Family policy and its reform in Europe 223
Mary Daly
18 Activation and flexibilization 235
Moira Nelson and J. Timo Weishaupt
19 Minimum income protection 249
Sarah Marchal, Ive Marx and Alessandro Nardo
20 Pension reforms in ageing societies 263
Karen M. Anderson
21 Healthcare and long-term care reforms 278
Claus Wendt
22 Housing policies for changing societies 293
Lindsay B. Flynn and Paulette Kurzer
PART IV THE POLITICS OF REFORM
23 The electoral politics of welfare state reforms 309
Frank Bandau and Leo Ahrens
24 Welfare state attitudes, knowledge and reform 321
Tijs Laenen, Bart Meuleman and Femke Roosma
25 Redistributive politics in contemporary welfare states 334
Jonas Pontusson and Jérémie Poltier
26 Ideational drivers of welfare reform in the European Union 348
Amandine Crespy and Bastian Kenn
27 Studying the reconfiguration of EU social policy 362
Miriam Hartlapp and Jana Windwehr
28 International organizations and welfare state reform 375
John Berten and Alexandra Kaasch
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