Age, Class, Politics, and the Welfare State

Age, Class, Politics, and the Welfare State
Author: Fred C. Pampel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 215
Release: 1989-08-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780521372237

This analysis of the growth of welfare spending examines the relative impact of class and status groups versus demographic composition and political structures. Special attention is given to the role of the aged as representative of the importance of ascription and middle-class groups in welfare growth, and to the effect of welfare spending on income inequality. Aggregate cross-national data from the UN, ILO, and the World Bank are analyzed and the conclusion is drawn that a large aged population, especially in combination with democratic political processes, is a direct and crucial influence on the level of welfare spending.

The Transformation of Old Age Security

The Transformation of Old Age Security
Author: Jill Quadagno
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 284
Release: 1988-02-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780226699233

Why did the United States lag behind Germany, Britain, and Sweden in adopting a national plan for the elderly? When the Social Security Act was finally enacted in 1935, why did it depend on a class-based double standard? Why is old age welfare in the United States still less comprehensive than its European counterparts? In this sophisticated analytical chronicle of one hundred years of American welfare history, Jill Quadagno explores the curious birth of old age assistance in the United States. Grounded in historical research and informed by social science theory, the study reveals how public assistance grew from colonial-era poor laws, locally financed and administered, into a massive federal bureaucracy.

Welfare as We Knew it

Welfare as We Knew it
Author: Charles Noble
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 217
Release: 1997
Genre: Public welfare
ISBN: 0195113373

Compared to other rich Western democracies, the United States historically has done less to help its citizens adapt to the uncertainties of life in a market economy. Nor does the immediate future seem to promise anything different. In Welfare As We Know It, Charles Noble offers a groundbreaking explanation of why America is so different, arguing that deeply rooted political factors, not public opinion, have limited what social reformers have been able to accomplish.

Age in the Welfare State

Age in the Welfare State
Author: Julia Lynch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2006-06-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1139454951

This book asks why some countries devote the lion's share of their social policy resources to the elderly, while others have a more balanced repertoire of social spending. Far from being the outcome of demands for welfare spending by powerful age-based groups in society, the 'age' of welfare is an unintended consequence of the way that social programs are set up. The way that politicians use welfare state spending to compete for votes, along either programmatic or particularistic lines, locks these early institutional choices into place. So while society is changing - aging, divorcing, moving in and out of the labor force over the life course in new ways - social policies do not evolve to catch up. The result, in occupational welfare states like Italy, the United States, and Japan, is social spending that favors the elderly and leaves working-aged adults and children largely to fend for themselves.

How Policies Make Citizens

How Policies Make Citizens
Author: Andrea Louise Campbell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2011-10-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1400841313

Some groups participate in politics more than others. Why? And does it matter for policy outcomes? In this richly detailed and fluidly written book, Andrea Campbell argues that democratic participation and public policy powerfully reinforce each other. Through a case study of senior citizens in the United States and their political activity around Social Security, she shows how highly participatory groups get their policy preferences fulfilled, and how public policy itself helps create political inequality. Using a wealth of unique survey and historical data, Campbell shows how the development of Social Security helped transform seniors from the most beleaguered to the most politically active age group. Thus empowered, seniors actively defend their programs from proposed threats, shaping policy outcomes. The participatory effects are strongest for low-income seniors, who are most dependent on Social Security. The program thus reduces political inequality within the senior population--a laudable effect--while increasing inequality between seniors and younger citizens. A brief look across policies shows that program effects are not always positive. Welfare recipients are even less participatory than their modest socioeconomic backgrounds would imply, because of the demeaning and disenfranchising process of proving eligibility. Campbell concludes that program design profoundly shapes the nature of democratic citizenship. And proposed policies--such as Social Security privatization--must be evaluated for both their economic and political effects, because the very quality of democratic government is influenced by the kinds of policies it chooses.

Life Cycle Risks and the Politics of the Welfare State

Life Cycle Risks and the Politics of the Welfare State
Author: Carsten Jensen
Publisher: Aarhus Universitetsforlag
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2019-09-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 8771849998

Life Cycle Risks and the Politics of the Welfare State presents the dual risk model of the welfare state. Previous research in the field has predominantly studied the role of modernization and the associated labor market risks; this book gives equal weight to a different class of social risks, namely those related to the life cycle. Labor market and life cycle risks each have profound, but distinct consequences for the political process of the welfare state, including public opinion formation, party competition, and public policy-making. The dual risk model helps us to understand why some social programs are prioritized over others in terms of political attention and public spending - and how this prioritization leads to mounting economic inequalities in modern-day societies.

The Welfare State

The Welfare State
Author: David Garland
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2016
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199672660

This Very Short Introduction discusses the necessity of welfare states in modern capitalist societies. Situating social policy in an historical, sociological, and comparative perspective, David Garland brings a new understanding to familiar debates, policies, and institutions.

The Welfare State Nobody Knows

The Welfare State Nobody Knows
Author: Christopher Howard
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2007
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780691121802

Publisher description

The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State

The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State
Author: Francis G. Castles
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 908
Release: 2012-09-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 019162828X

The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State is the authoritative and definitive guide to the contemporary welfare state. In a volume consisting of nearly fifty newly-written chapters, a broad range of the world's leading scholars offer a comprehensive account of everything one needs to know about the modern welfare state. The book is divided into eight sections. It opens with three chapters that evaluate the philosophical case for (and against) the welfare state. Surveys of the welfare state 's history and of the approaches taken to its study are followed by four extended sections, running to some thirty-five chapters in all, which offer a comprehensive and in-depth survey of our current state of knowledge across the whole range of issues that the welfare state embraces. The first of these sections looks at inputs and actors (including the roles of parties, unions, and employers), the impact of gender and religion, patterns of migration and a changing public opinion, the role of international organisations and the impact of globalisation. The next two sections cover policy inputs (in areas such as pensions, health care, disability, care of the elderly, unemployment, and labour market activation) and their outcomes (in terms of inequality and poverty, macroeconomic performance, and retrenchment). The seventh section consists of seven chapters which survey welfare state experience around the globe (and not just within the OECD). Two final chapters consider questions about the global future of the welfare state. The individual chapters of the Handbook are written in an informed but accessible way by leading researchers in their respective fields giving the reader an excellent and truly up-to-date knowledge of the area under discussion. Taken together, they constitute a comprehensive compendium of all that is best in contemporary welfare state research and a unique guide to what is happening now in this most crucial and contested area of social and political development.