West European Politics articles from April 2000

West European Politics archives from April 2000

Recasting European Welfare States: An Introduction.
April 1, 2000... Since the establishment of compulsory social insurance in Wilhelmine Germany back in 1883, the welfare state has made a fundamental contribution to the modernisation of European society: its programmes have greatly contributed to consolidating...

Interests and Choice in the 'Not Quite so New' Politics of Welfare.
April 1, 2000... The 'new politics of the welfare state' is a term coined by Paul Pierson to differentiate between the popular politics of welfare expansion and the unpopular politics of retrenchment. [1] In contrast to the distributive and legitimising...

Reforming Health Care in Europe.
April 1, 2000... Health care policy has been a crucible of welfare reform in Europe for a quarter of a century and for good reason: there is a tremendous amount at stake. We argue that the 'epidemic' of reform -- to use Rudolf Klein's word [1] -- has been...

Timing and the Development of Social Care Services in Europe.
April 1, 2000... Over the last decade a growing body of literature started addressing a variety of questions related to the development of the personal social services. What is driving the new interest in social care is the increasing awareness that new social...

Motives, Means and Opportunities: Reforming Unemployment Compensation in the 1990s.
April 1, 2000... At the end of the 1990s the debate about developments in European welfare states looks distinctly different compared with the 1980s, or even the early 1990s. Attempts to explain welfare state change, prominent until the end of the 1980s, gave...

'Defrosting' the French Welfare State.
April 1, 2000... Since the mid-1970s, the Western welfare states have found themselves in new circumstances. After a period of analysis of the welfare state crisis during the 1980s, more and more studies have focused during the 1990s on the actual welfare state...

The Employment Crisis of the German Welfare State.
April 1, 2000... How did the German welfare state fare in the 1990s and what are its prospects for the near future? If one were to follow recent accounts of two influential German social scientists there does not seem to be reason for much concern. By looking...

Desperately Seeking a Solution: Social Democracy, Thatcherism and the 'Third Way' in British Welfare.(former United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher)
April 1, 2000... With the arrival of the Blair government in Britain and the subsequent hype surrounding the 'Third Way', there has been much media debate and academic argument about the nature of New Labour and the fate of the economy and the welfare state in...

Reforms Guided by Consensus: The Welfare State in the Italian Transition.
April 1, 2000... For Italy, the 1990s may be considered an important 'season of reform' in the field of social and labour policy. Between 1992 and 1998 there were numerous innovations in both policy sectors. As regards social insurance, the reforms introduced...

The Scandinavian Welfare State in the 1990s: Challenged but Viable.
April 1, 2000... HISTORICAL PREREQUISITES Historical, cultural and institutional attributes influenced Scandinavian political choices for social insurance institutions and welfare policies at the time of the Bismarckian 'conception' of national social...

Change and Immobility: Three Decades of Policy Adjustment in the Netherlands and Belgium.
April 1, 2000... TWO NEGOTIATED ECONOMIES With ten and 15 million inhabitants, respectively, Belgium and the Netherlands are two of the smaller members of the European Union. Bordering on Germany and hosting the two largest seaports and one of the largest...

Building a Sustainable Welfare State.
April 1, 2000... ESCAPING THE EQUALITY-EFFICIENCY TRADE-OFF The conciliation of economic growth - with its demanding 'efficiency' imperatives - and social justice - with its equally demanding call for 'equality' - was one of the most significant...

Governing Ideas: Strategies for Innovation in France and Germany.(Review)
April 1, 2000... Governing Ideas: Strategies for Innovation in France and Germany. J. NICHOLAS ZIEGLER. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999. Pp.253. [pound]30 (cloth) ISBN 0-8014-331-8: [pound]14.99 (paper) ISBN 0-8014-8371-9 Governing Ideas is a...

Representation: Theory and Practice in Britain.(Review)
April 1, 2000... Representation: Theory and Practice in Britain. DAVID JUDGE. London: Routledge, 1999. Pp.x + 230, biblio., index. [pound]55 (cloth) ISBN 0-415-08196-3; [pound17.99 (paper) ISBN 0-415-08197-1. David Judge has produced an excellent book on...

European Social Democracy: Transformation in Progress & The Challenge of Globalization for Germany's Social Democracy: A Policy Agenda for the Twenty-First Century & The Left's Dirty Job: The Politics of Industrial Restructuring in France and Spain.(Review)
April 1, 2000... European Social Democracy: Transformation in Progress. Edited by RENE CUPERUS and JOHANNES KANDEL. Amsterdam: Wiardi Beckman Stichting/Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 1998. Pp.302. NP. ISBN 90-72575-58-X The Challenge of Globalization for...

Parteien in Perspektive.(Review)
April 1, 2000... Parteien in Perspektive (Parties in Perspective). ELMAR WIESENDAHL. Opladen/Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1998. Pp.284, 2 tables, biblio. DM 68 (paper) ISBN 3-531-13121-4. Elmar Wiesendahl is well known among German political scientists...

Osterreich im europaischen Mehrebenensystem. Konsequenzen der EU-Mitgliedschaft fur Politiknetzwerke und Entscheidungsprozesse.(Review)
April 1, 2000... Osterreich im europaischen Mehrebenensystem. Konsequenzen der EU-Mitgliedschaft fur Politiknetzwerke und Entscheidungsprozesse (Austria in the European Multi-Level System. The Consequences of EU Membership for Policy Networks and...

Price of Power: The Secret Funding of the Tory Party.(Review)
April 1, 2000... Price of Power: The Secret Funding of the Tory Party. COLIN CHALLEN, London: Vision, 1998. Pp.x + 198, references, index. [pound]9.99 (paper) ISBN 1-901250-18-0. Party finance is an area of study in which objective analysis is too often...

European Integration and Supranational Governance & Democracy in the European Union.(Review)
April 1, 2000... European Integration and Supranational Governance. Edited by W. SANDHOLTZ and A. STONE SWEET. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp.389, index. [pounds]45 (cloth) ISBN 0-19-829457-3; [pounds]17.99 (paper) ISBN 0-19-829464-6. Democracy...