From the 1980s on, a privatization of labor market-related risks has occurred in the OECD. Governments have cut the generosity of social programs and tightened eligibility rules, particularly for the unemployed. Government Ideology, Economic Pressure, and Risk Privatization: How Economic Worldviews Shape Social Policy Choices in Times of Crisis analyses these curtailments for eighteen countries over the course of four decades and provides an encompassing comparative assessment of the interactive impact of government ideology and economic pressure. It demonstrates that the economic worldviews of governments are the most important factor in explaining why cuts are implemented or not. While ideas of non-intervention in the market underlie cuts in generosity, ideas of equality and fairness are at the heart of stricter eligibility criteria. This book also shows that the impact of the economic pressures often held responsible for the marginalization of politics and government ideology is in fact conditional on the specific ideological configuration.
Alexander Horn is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Government at Aarhus University. Previously, he took part in the PhD programs of the Berlin Graduate School and Duke University and defended his dissertation at Humboldt University Berlin. He has published in the European Journal of Political Research, Journal of European Social Policy, and Social Science History.
Title: Government Ideology, Economic Pressure, and Risk Privatization: How Economic Worldviews Shape Social Policy Choices in Times of Crisis (Changing Welfare States)
Author: Horn, Alexander
ISBN: 9789462980204
Binding:
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Publication Date: 2017-07-13
Number of Pages: 284
Weight: 0.5808 kg
This book has to be hailed for presenting a thorough analysis full of theoretical and methodological details in a vivid way, which altogether makes for a good read. The book is not only an essential contribution to the debate on partisanship and welfare state retrenchment but provides fresh impulses for future research, thus being a must-read for researchers interested in the partisan politics of the welfare state. - Frank Bandau, *Journal of Social Policy*, January 2019 [*Government Ideology, Economic Pressure, and Risk Privatization* is a] meticulous and sophisticated statistical analysis of eighteen OECD countries over the last forty years [...] The discussion and critiques of different theoretical traditions and methodological approaches is excellent. The suggestions for conceptualizing and improving the measurement of party ideologies is especially useful. For these reasons alone, it is worth reading. - John L. Campbell, *Contemporary Sociology* 47, 2018