The Economic Consequences of Rolling Back the Welfare State PDF Download

Author: Anthony Barnes Atkinson
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262011716
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
On the economics of the welfare State

Author: N. A. Barr
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN:
Category : Distributive justice
Languages : en
Pages : 524

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Book Description
Argues that the welfare state is necessary on grounds of efficiency as well as equity, and that its major efficiency role makes it relevant to the whole population. This edition takes into account reforms since 1987 in social security, the NHS and education and the Thatcher/Reagan governments.

Author: Stein Ringen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 135147670X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
The Possibility of Politics explores the power of political reform, specifically reform of the modern welfare state. Can reform be effective if limited to cautious and piecemeal interventions that avoid radicalism and revolution? Can it also avoid unwanted consequences? Will the welfare state survive in the future?Stein Ringen views the welfare state as a large-scale experiment in political reform. To ask if the welfare state works is to ask if political reform is possible at all. By its nature, the welfare state is reform on a grand scale, for it attempts to change the circumstances individuals and families live under without changing and disrupting society itself. But is it realistic to believe a population can get together, set goals and then try to meet these goals through collective actions, specifically public policies, without causing unintended consequences and destroying the state in the process? The welfare state attempts, idealistically, to redistribute welfare without reshaping the economic processes that cause inequities in the first place. Ringen considers how well redistribution has met the test in terms of political legitimacy, its intended effects on poverty and inequality, as well as its undesired and unintended effects on economic efficiency and the quality of private life. Ultimately, does the welfare state work? Further, is the welfare state a good thing?In considering these questions, The Possibility of Politics should be of particular value to academics and advanced students interested in political theory, public economics, social administration, and political sociology.Stein Ringen is professor of sociology and social policy at Oxford University and a Fellow of Green College. He teaches social and political theory and research methodology for graduates in social policy, sociology, politics, economic and social history and other subjects.

Author: Thomas Wilson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000478181
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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In the early 1980s, the welfare state, for too long regarded as a notable contribution to the establishment of a humane social order, had over the previous decade come under increasing attack. Some of its critics, especially in the UK and the USA, maintained that it had failed to deal satisfactorily with the problem of poverty. Others held that it was over-elaborate, created a psychology of dependence and imposed costs that needed to be reduced as part of a policy of general economic recovery. In a number of countries, cuts had already been imposed or were now contemplated. In this situation it was crucially important to direct attention once more to the basic objectives of the various welfare services from a systematic and comparative standpoint. Originally published in 1982, the authors of this book, one an economist and the other a specialist in social administration, subjected these aims to rigorous analysis and discuss the underlying issues of social philosophy. They then attempt to assess the various methods adopted for their attainment in Britain and comment on those adopted in the USA and in some continental European countries. Although the authors reject the more extreme assertion that the welfare state has been a failure, they point to the need to relate some of the policies followed more clearly to the basic objectives. A number of proposals for reform are put forward which would imply some change of emphasis and should permit a simplification of existing over-complex arrangements.

Author: Pierre Pestieau
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192549057
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Although in Europe there continues to be a large degree of consensus that it is the responsibility of government to ensure that nobody who is poor, sick, disabled, unemployed, or old is left deprived, there are mounting calls to roll back spending on the welfare state. It is argued that it fails to achieve its main objectives, that it is responsible for a decline in economic performance, and that it was conceived in a very different period and is therefore not adapted to modern realities. This second edition of The Welfare State in Europe: Economic and Social Perspectives provides an informed analysis of the key criticisms of the welfare state and examines the prospects of this system in an increasingly integrated world. It answers important questions regarding the current social situation of European countries, the performance of the welfare states, and the reforms that should be undertaken. It calls for fundamental changes in social policies in order to address the rising inequality that hampers social cohesion in Europe. Now focused on Europe in its entirety and including a new chapter on long term care, this new edition of an integral text on the welfare state places increased focus on social divisions and the populist vote to provide a balanced and up-to-date analysis of the performance of current systems.

Author: Peter H. Lindert
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110862653X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 59

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Book Description
The traditionally, and wrongly, imagined vulnerabilities of the welfare state are economic. The true threats are demographic and political. The most frequently imagined threat is that the welfare state package reduces the level and growth of GDP. It does not, according to broad historical patterns and non-experimental panel econometrics. Large-budget welfare states achieve a host of social improvements without any clear loss of GDP. This Element elaborates on how this 'free lunch' is gained in practice. Other threats to the welfare state are more real, however. One is the rise of anti-immigrant backlash. If combined with heavy refugee inflows, this could destroy future public support for universalist welfare state programs, even though they seem to remain economically sound. The other is that population aging poses a serious problem for financing old age. Pension deficits threaten to crowd out more productive social spending. Only a few countries have faced this issue well.

Author: Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780389205296
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
This book surveys the creation and existence of the welfare state in the developed economies, analyzes ways in which problems have emerged, and suggests possibilities for reform.

Author: Nicholas Barr
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199297819
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
The fifth edition of this successful textbook discusses the different parts of the welfare system and, in particular, cash benefits, the health service, and education. The text is organized into four parts: Concepts, Cash benefits, Benefits in kind, and Epilogue.

Author: Herbert Giersch
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642604978
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
This book is the sequel to Fighting Europe's Unemployment in the 1990s, the collection of papers presented at the Salzburg Symposium of the Egon-Sohmen-Foundation in 1994. Though the problem of un employment was urgent already then, it has not found a practical solution in the meantime, and even intellectually it remains somewhat of a mystery. A clue is offered by the contrast with the United States: they have the working poor; we, on the old continent, have the welfare recipients. This brings the relationship between unemployment and the welfare state to the fore. On closer inspection, however, the matter appears to be much more complicated than the transatlantic contrast suggests. Consider only that the welfare state and what is called "social policy" have a long tradition in Europe. They obviously did not pre vent or noticeably hamper the decline in unemployment in the 1950s and the emergence of full employment in the 1960s. This leaves room for various conjectures. Does the welfare state matter only after a long time lag or after it has grown too fast or too much beyond a critical size? Is it the welfare state per se that is harmful to employment or do its harmful effects arise only under certain conditions, e. g.

Author: Irwin Garfinkel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019957930X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Including education has profound consequences, undergirding the case for the productivity of welfare state programs and the explanation for why all rich nations have large welfare states, and identifying US welfare state leadership. From 1968 through 2006, the United States swung right politically and lost its lead in education and opportunity, failed to adopt universal health insurance and experienced the most rapid explosion of health care costs and economic inequality in the rich world. The American welfare state faces large challenges. Restoring its historical lead in education is the most important but requires investing large sums in education, beginning with universal pre-school and in complementary programs that aid children's development.