A Long Goodbye to Bismarck?: The Politics of Welfare Reform in Continental Europe (Changing Welfare States)

A Long Goodbye to Bismarck? is the first study to provide an exhaustive comparative account of all welfare reforms in continental Europe during the past three decades, covering Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and Switzerland. Table of Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Prologue: What does it Mean to Break with Bismarck?......Page 12 1. Ordering Change: Understanding the ‘Bismarckian’ Welfare Reform Trajectory......Page 20 2. A Social Insurance State Withers Away. Welfare State Reforms in Germany – Or: Attempts to Turn Around in a Cul-de-Sac......Page 46 3. The Dualizations of the French Welfare System......Page 74 4. Janus-Faced Developments in a Prototypical Bismarckian Welfare State: Welfare Reforms in Austria since the 1970s ......Page 102 5. Continental Welfare at a Crossroads: The Choice between Activation and Minimum Income Protection in Belgium and the Netherlands ......Page 130 6. Italy : An Uncompleted Departure from Bismarck......Page 158 7. Defrosting the Spanish Welfare State: The Weight of Conservative Components......Page 184 8. Reform Opportunities in a Bismarckian Latecomer: Restructuring the Swiss Welfare State......Page 208 9. The Politics of Social Security Reforms in the Czech Republic , Hungary , Poland and Slovakia......Page 234 10. Reforming Bismarckian Corporatism : The Changing Role of Social Partnership in Continental Europe......Page 256 11. Trajectories of Fiscal Adjustment in Bismarckian Welfare Systems......Page 280 12. Whatever Happened to the Bismarckian Welfare State? From Labor Shedding to Employment-Friendly Reforms......Page 302 13. The Long Conservative Corporatist Road to Welfare Reforms......Page 334 Notes......Page 390 Bibliography......Page 404 About the Contributors......Page 440 Index......Page 444 This book provides an extensive and comparative account of all welfare reforms that occurred during the last three decades in Continental European countries. It reveals unexpected important structural reforms, to be understood as the culmination of a long reform trajectory, analyzed in detail with the tools of comparative historical institutionalism. With these reforms, Bismarckian welfare systems have lost their encompassing capacities, have partially turned to employment-friendliness and weakened the strongest elements of their male breadwinner bias. "This volume is the definitive work on the politics of reform in Bismarckian welfare regimes. It is essential reading for any scholar interested in welfare reform - or indeed, in institutional and policy change more generally." (Kathleen Thelen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) "The contributors to the volume are all recognized experts on their field and provide strictly comparable analyses in their chapters, making this volume a gold mine for comparative welfare state scholars. Palier's volume is certain to be a benchmark study for the foreseeable future." (John D. Stephens, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) "This volume, representing the best available scholarship in comparative socio-economic research, provides important and highly policy-relevant insights. A must-read." (Fritz Scharpf, Max Planck Institute for the Studies of Societies) -- OAPEN website "This volume is the definitive work on the politics of reform in Bismarckian welfare regimes. It is essential reading for any scholar interested in welfare reform û or indeed, in institutional and policy change more generally."-Kathleen Thelen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology The best available up-to-date scholarship in comparative socio-economic research in welfare state reform