Diminishing Welfare : A Cross-National Study of Social Provision

This work compares the nature and extent of changes in social welfare programmes and labour markets in nine industrialized countries. This cross-national study sheds light on general trends in social welfare, and provides clues to what constitutes successful reform and what has failed Particularly in the 1990s, social welfare programs have been cut back in a number of countries. Indeed, the phrases ending welfare as we know it or dismantling the welfare state have been used to describe this trend. In this analysis by well-recognized social welfare scholars, the nature and extent of changes in social welfare programs in key industrial or post-industrial countries is scrutinized.Determining if and how social welfare and employment prospects have been cut back in the United States, Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Japan helps to identify the population groups hardest hit by cutback. In the United States, for example, poor, single-mother families have suffered major reductions in income support, while more powerful groups have avoided major losses. This cross-national study not only sheds light on general trends in social welfare but also provides clues to what constitutes successful reform and what has failed. This major comparative analysis will be of interest to scholars, students, policy makers, and professionals as well as the general public concerned with social welfare issues, full employment, poverty, and economic inequality. Introduction: three stages of welfare capitalism / Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg More than reluctant: the United States of America / Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg Downloading the welfare state, Canadian style / Patricia M. Evans Sweden: temporary detour or new directions? / Helen Lachs Ginsburg and Marguerite G. Rosenthal Diminishing welfare: the case of the United Kingdom / Jane Millar The triple exceptionalism of the French welfare state / Mark Kesselman The dismantling of welfare in Germany / Gehard Bäcker and Ute Klammer Diminishing welfare: the Italian case / Enrica Morlicchio, Enrico Pugliese, and Elena Spinelli / Hungary: retrenchment amid radical restructuring / Phineas Baxandall Is the Japanese-style welfare society sustainable? / Masami Nomura and Kimiko Kimoto Diminishing welfare: convergence toward a liberal model? / Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg In the decades following World War II, a permanent and growing social welfare sector seemed a secure, even defining attribute of the "new capitalism." Annotation Compares the nature and extent of changes in social welfare programs and labor markets in nine industrialized countries Edited By Gertrude Schaffner Goldberg And Marguerite G. Rosenthal. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.