Handbook on Austerity, Populism and the Welfare State (Elgar Handbooks in Social Policy and Welfare)

"This innovative Handbook presents the core concepts associated with austerity, retrenchment and populism and explores how they can be used to analyse developments in different welfare states and in specific social policies. Leading experts highlight how these concepts have influenced and changed welfare states around the globe and impacted specific areas including pensions, long-term care, the labour market, taxation, social activism and gender equality. Comprehensive in approach, the authors offer cutting edge research demonstrating the importance of societal developments to welfare states and the effects of ideas, ideologies and variations in policies and decisions in different countries. They also investigate key country and regime-specific approaches to welfare state development, analysing and interpreting changes in the last 10-15 years. The main drivers for these changes, ranging from demography, to the financial crisis, to the use of new technology and the possible impact of populism, are examined. Far reaching and authoritative, this timely Handbook offers a systematic theoretic overview which will be invaluable for scholars of welfare states, social policy, sociology and political science. Social policy makers will also benefit from the novel case studies explored in depth, and suggestions for potential policy changes"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter 1 Copyright 4 Contents 5 Contributors 8 PART I INTRODUCTION 15 1. Introduction to the Handbook on Austerity, Populism and the Welfare State 16 PART II CONCEPTUAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES 24 2. What is austerity? 25 3. The politics of retrenchment 39 4. Populism and the welfare state 55 5. Measuring retrenchment in welfare states: overcoming the challenges to the definition, operationalization and measurement of welfare policy change 68 6. The dependent variable problem revisited: methods, concepts, and scope in the welfare retrenchment literature 78 7. Understanding the ‘welfare state’ in the context of austerity and populism 95 8. Austerity, populism, and the politics of blame: an ideational perspective 108 9. The social legitimacy of European welfare states after “the age of austerity” 124 10. Austerity and poverty 144 PART III COUNTRY AND WELFARE REGIMES - ANALYSIS OF AUSTERITY/POPULISM 156 11. Nordic welfare state changes especially in the light of migration and the financial crisis 157 12. Fiscal austerity, welfare retrenchment and political populism in Continental European welfare states 169 13. The United Kingdom before and after Brexit 184 14. South Europe: reclaiming welfare post-crisis? 200 15. Austerity, populism and welfare retrenchment in Central and South Eastern Europe 221 16. Support to families with children in the Baltic States: pathways of expansion and retrenchment from 2004 to 2019 235 PART IV ARE SPECIFIC WELFARE PROGRAMS MORE PRONE TO AUSTERITY - AND IF SO, WHY? 257 17. Incremental or paradigm shifting? Evidence about the retrenchment of public pension schemes in the industrialised world from expenditure and replacement rate data,1980-2015 258 18. Unemployment benefits in the 21st century: new dimensions of retrenchment and the roles of austerity and populism 279 19. Austerity and its corresponding effects on public safety and crime 295 20. Family policy in Europe in the era of austerity and populism 308 21. Long-term care policies meet austerity 326 22. Changes in tax systems 342 23. Labour markets in post-crisis Europe: liberalisation, deregulation, precarisation 358 24. The impact of austerity on social activism 374 25. Gender, austerity and the welfare state 389 PART V CHANGE TO THE ROLE OF WELFARE STATES? 409 26. Reflection upon the development of, and the future for, welfare states 410 Index 415 ''This innovative Handbook presents the core concepts associated with austerity, retrenchment and populism and explores how they can be used to analyse developments in different welfare states and in specific social policies. Leading experts highlight how these concepts have influenced and changed welfare states around the globe and impacted specific areas including pensions, long-term care, the labour market, taxation, social activism and gender equality. Comprehensive in approach, the authors offer cutting edge research demonstrating the importance of societal developments to welfare states and the effects of ideas, ideologies and variations in policies and decisions in different countries. They also investigate key country and regime-specific approaches to welfare state development, analysing and interpreting changes in the last 10-15 years. The main drivers for these changes, ranging from demography, to the financial crisis, to the use of new technology and the possible impact of populism, are examined. Far reaching and authoritative, this timely Handbook offers a systematic theoretic overview which will be invaluable for scholars of welfare states, social policy, sociology and political science. Social policy makers will also benefit from the novel case studies explored in depth, and suggestions for potential policy changes.''-- Site de l'éditeur