Aspalter asserts that the belief that the development of high standard welfare states is primarily based on the ideology that pro-welfare, mostly leftwing, parties dominate welfare state literature and common thought in the Western world. Instead, in this examination of the welfare states of East Asia, Aspalter and his contributors show that they grew as naturally as they did in most Western countries, but that the reasons for this are other than pro-welfare ideologies. The five welfare states--Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore--are residual welfare states with low levels of welfare benefits and provision when compared to extended welfare states in Western Europe. While East Asian welfare states have experienced a hefty increase in welfare provision that has been regulated or provided by the state since the early 1970s, all five were set up and expanded by conservative governments with clear anti-welfare ideologies.

The case studies provided by Aspalter and his contributors suggest that welfare state development in East Asia is caused to a large extent by social protests in general, and, for welfare in particular, by competition in democratic elections, and by the changing role of women. Social and demographic factors, such as the rise of the age structure of the population, do not cause welfare state expansion in the first place. They cause street protests, and street protests convince all kinds of governments--if they rule out the use of force--to implement social welfare. Moreover, politicians, who are afraid to lose elections, also take up welfare issues, which they would not do without electoral competition between candidates and parties. As Aspalter makes clear, governments do not have to wait until major protests occur or until they have lost an election in order to promote social welfare. The anticipation of such an event is sufficient. This book provides new insights on the development of welfare systems that will be of particular interest to scholars, students, and other researchers involved with social welfare, East Asian studies, and comparative politics.

Institutional and Financial Incentives for Social Insurance provides both an empirical and a theoretical account of the main difficulties presently threatening social insurance systems in most industrialized countries. It analyzes the remedies that have been discussed and sometimes introduced and addresses many questions still left largely unresolved: Are newly implemented or proposed reforms providing the correct incentives to all participants in the system? Is the quality of service improving and, if not, what can be done? How should the budgetary problems be solved considering both intra-generational and inter-generational redistributive policies?

The volume describes a number of studies of social security systems in various countries and assesses the effect of various policies, including welfare or unemployment benefits, training and other active labour market policies, the provision of pension, and competition and budget devolution in health care. It applies empirical tests to individual preferences concerning unemployment compensation, and it analyzes nonfunded and funded social security systems, the transition from one system to the other, and the willingness to pay for pensions.

This book will be of interest to academics, researchers and students in public, labour, health and welfare economics, as well as experts and researchers in social insurance.

Imperial Inequalities takes Western European empires and their legacies as the explicit starting point for discussion of issues of taxation and welfare. In doing so, it addresses the institutional and fiscal processes involved in modes of extraction, taxation, and the hierarchies of welfare distribution across Europe's global empires. The idea of 'imperial inequalities' provides a conceptual frame for thinking about the long-standing colonial histories that are responsible, at least in part, for the shape of present inequalities. This wide-ranging volume challenges existing historiographical accounts that present states and empires as separate categories. Instead, it views them as co-constitutive units by focusing upon the politics of economic governance across imperial spaces. Authors examine the fiscal innovations that enabled European empires to finance their expansion, the politics of redistribution that were important to constructing the veneer of legitimacy of taxation, and the fiscal mechanisms that were established to ensure that the imperial contours of inequality continued to define the postcolonial world. These diverse contributions provide new resources for how we think about issues of taxation and welfare across the longue duree. This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 10, Reduced inequalities -- .

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed by President Obama in March 2010 is a landmark in U.S. social legislation, and the Supreme Court's recent decision upholding the Act has ensured that it will remain the law of the land. The new law extends health insurance to nearly all Americans, fulfilling a century-long quest and bringing the United States to parity with other industrial nations. Affordable Care aims to control rapidly rising health care costs and promises to make the United States more equal, reversing four decades of rising disparities between the very rich and everyone else. Millions of people of modest means will gain new benefits and protections from insurance company abuses - and the tab will be paid by privileged corporations and the very rich. How did such a bold reform effort pass in a polity wracked by partisan divisions and intense lobbying by special interests? What does Affordable Care mean-and what comes next? In this updated edition of Health Care Reform and American Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know (R), Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda Skocpol-two of the nation's leading experts on politics and health care policy-provide a concise and accessible overview. They explain the political battles of 2009 and 2010, highlighting White House strategies, the deals Democrats cut with interest groups, and the impact of agitation by Tea Partiers and progressives. Jacobs and Skocpol spell out what the new law can do for everyday Americans, what it will cost, and who will pay. In a new section, they also analyze the impact the Supreme Court ruling that upheld the law. Above all, they explain what comes next, as critical yet often behind-the-scenes battles rage over implementing reform nationally and in the fifty states. Affordable Care still faces challenges at the state level despite the Court ruling. But, like Social Security and Medicare, it could also gain strength and popularity as the majority of Americans learn what it can do for them.

At a time when political leaders of the member nations are not acting to strengthen the multilateral trading system via the World Trade Organization, it is worthwhile to reflect on the WTO's contributions to global welfare since its inception more than 65 years ago. This volume assembles seminal empirical studies which estimate the past and prospective, national and global economic welfare impacts of GATT/WTO-induced multilateral trade liberalizations. It also touches on the effects of the Uruguay Round's TRIPS Agreement on intellectual property rights, and the benefits from WTO accessions and trade facilitation initiatives. In his authoritative introduction, Professor Anderson points to the numerous additional contributions of the WTO (and its predecessor, the GATT) which, though difficult to quantify, are nonetheless of great value and highlights those areas where further empirical research could shed more light on the net benefits of this important institution.

The leading textbook on imperfect labor markets and the institutions that affect them-now completely updated and expanded Today's labor markets are witnessing seismic changes brought on by such factors as rising self-employment, temporary employment, zero-hour contracts, and the growth of the sharing economy. This fully updated and revised third edition of The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets reflects these and other critical changes in imperfect labor markets, and it has been significantly expanded to discuss topics such as workplace safety, regulations on self-employment, and disability and absence from work. This new edition also features engaging case studies that illustrate key aspects of imperfect labor markets. Authoritative and accessible, this textbook examines the many institutions that affect the behavior of workers and employers in imperfect labor markets. These include minimum wages, employment protection legislation, unemployment benefits, family policies, equal opportunity legislation, collective bargaining, early retirement programs, and education and migration policies. Written for advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students, the book carefully defines and measures these institutions to accurately characterize their effects, and discusses how these institutions are being transformed today. Fully updated to reflect today's changing labor markets Significantly expanded to discuss a wealth of new topics, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic Features quantitative examples, new case studies, data sets that enable users to replicate results in the literature, technical appendixes, and end-of-chapter exercises Unique focus on institutions in imperfect labor markets Self-contained chapters cover each of the most important labor-market institutions Instructor's manual available to professors-now with new exercises and solutions

A state-of-the-art assessment of welfare provision, policy and reform at national and at EU level which spans the whole of Europe - East, West and Central. Uniquely broad-ranging in scope, and covering the latest research findings and theoretical debates, it provides a genuinely comparative overview text for students of the new Europe.

Post-suburbia is a term that encapsulates a variety of contemporary urban forms, in particular the 'edge city' - a term used to describe the rapid growth of new urban centres at the edges of established major cities. Widely discussed in the US, very little has been written about European edge cities and this book provides a comparative analysis of examples in Greece, Spain, Paris, Finland and the UK, offering a theoretical analysis of the edge city and of post-suburban Europe.

Surviving Domestic Violence follows a group of women on their journeys through and away from abusive relationships. Using a gendered lens, seven influential social dimensions are examined: power, emotion, children, home, economic resource, informal and community support. Struggling with domestic violence and poverty, we see women actively pursuing safety for themselves and their children. However, a gendered analysis of external structural contexts, as well as individual responses, reveals the constraints women face in achieving support to gain safety.

'A brilliant expose' - Danny Dorling Covid-19 has exposed the limits of a neoliberal public health orthodoxy. But instead of imagining radical change, the left is stuck in a rearguard action focused on defending the NHS from the wrecking ball of privatisation. Public health expert Christopher Thomas argues that we must emerge from Covid-19 on the offensive - with a bold, new vision for our health and care. He maps out five new frontiers for public health and imagines how we can move beyond safeguarding what we have to a radical expansion of the principles put forward by Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the NHS, over 70 years ago. Beyond recalibrating our approach to healthcare services, his blueprint includes a fundamental redesign of our economy through Public Health Net Zero; a bold new universal public health service fit to address the real causes of ill health; and a major recalibration in the efforts against the epidemiological reality of an era of pandemics.

There is a clear trend in rich countries that, despite rising incomes and living standards, the gap between rich and poor is widening. What does this mean for our health? Does increasing income inequality affect outcomes such as obesity, life expectancy and subjective well-being? Are rich and poor groups affected in the same ways? This book reviews the latest research on the relationship between inequality and health, and provides a pedagogical introduction to the tools and knowledge needed to understand and assess the vast literature on the subject. The book includes discussion of the definitions and measurement of objective and subjective health and income inequality, and illustrates how various measures have been developed in different countries. Main conclusions from the literature are then summarized and discussed critically. It incorporates a substantial research overview of the field, as well as a detailed debate of the empirical challenges that arise during research. The book concludes that results are surprisingly contradictory, but that several studies have found that higher inequality is directly linked to lower subjective well-being. Students and scholars in public health, social work, economics, and sociology will find this book an essential exposition of conceptual issues and empirical methods applied to the controversial topic of the health consequences of inequality.

A hugely important contribution to one of the key questions of our time: how to combine, in a socially just way, the universalism embodied in national welfare states with the diversity and transnational mobility of populations. Using Myrdal's 1944 analysis, An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy, as a launch, the chapters circumnavigate this question 360 degrees across twentieth century history, across the Atlantic, and across the contemporary world, tracking the arguments this way and that. A must read.' - Fiona Williams, University of Leeds, UK'Gathering excellent contributors, this book explores the contested relationship between social policy and ethnic-racial diversity. Adopting an historical perspective and starting from Gunnar Myrdal's seminal book An America Dilemma, the volume compares the American experience with the European situation, where the implications of ethnic and racial diversity for social policy are now widely debated. Students of ethnic relations and of social policy from both sides of the Atlantic should read and engage with this unique and outstanding volume.' - Daniel Beland, University of Saskatchewan, Canada 'Has racial and ethnic fragmentation undermined American social solidarity and undercut the US welfare state? Even more pertinently, now that we are all multiculturalists and every nation is a melting pot, do the formerly so-homogenous Europeans face similar dilemmas? Are they joining in a race to the social policy bottom, or have they found ways to overcome these divisions? Such questions are pursued by these fascinating essays that have relevance for both sides of the Atlantic, and for scholars and policy makers alike.' - Peter Baldwin, Global Distinguished Professor, New York University, US In this interdisciplinary volume, leading and emerging scholars examine the relationship between homogeneity and welfare state development. They trace Gunnar Myrdal's influence on thinking about race in the US and explore current European states' approaches to the strangers in their midst, and what social citizenship looks like from a global perspective. Myrdal's An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy persuaded many scholars that the United States failed to develop a robust welfare state because of its ethnic and racial heterogeneity. Conversely, it argued that homogeneity was a precondition for the creation of strong welfare states in European, especially Nordic, countries. With increasing diversity now challenging these welfare states, the kind of 'dilemma' that Myrdal identified no longer appears to be solely an American one. Students and scholars of contemporary welfare states in the social sciences and policy studies will find this to be an insightful read, as the book challenges current perceptions. It will also be of interest to policy makers and practitioners looking to examine the historical context behind the politics of welfare states in the US and Scandinavia. Contributors: H. Blomberg-Kroll, G. Brochmann, R. Careja, P. Emmenegger, T. Faist, P. Kettunen, D. King, J. Kvist, S. Michel, M. Morey, H.B. Nassif, A. O'Connor, R.S. Parrenas, S. Pellander, K. Petersen, D. Roberts, A.V. Schwennicke, A.H. Sinno, E. Tatari, S. Williamson

This book provides two main contributions to the existing literature on the history of welfare institutions and social rights in the 20th century. First, it is, to the best of our knowledge, the first research to analyze the cross-country comparison of welfare policies between the two countries from a historical prospective. The comparison is particularly interesting as we focus on two nations with very different institutional settings. On one side Switzerland, a federal state. On the other Italy, a centralized state until only very recently. The second important contribution of this book is the specific set of policies analyzed: policies aimed at protecting motherhood, childhood and women workers' rights during the 20th century, a period in which European society changed drastically.

Basic income is one the most innovative, powerful and controversial proposals for addressing poverty and growing inequalities. This book examines the arguments for and against basic income from the point of view of economic and social justice.

This volume, comprised of contributions by urban planners and social scientists sets forth accumulated experience directed at improving the quality of life in cities through neighbourhood programmes. Policy issues, housing programmes and job development plans, along with organizational innovations aimed at redistribution of power, are described and evaluated.;The book shows that in spite of national and local differences, there are common lines of thinking in the urban planning profession that lead to similar approaches to solving problems of urban neighbourhoods in western countries. In all of them, slum clearance has been substituted by programmes to improve the existing housing stock and to open new opportunities to the local residents. In addition, government-only large projects are being replaced by public-private smaller initiatives. The collection of papers leads to the conclusion that there are reasons and ways to cultivate our neighbourhoods. This may be important in our times, when changing employment arrangements cause a larger proportion of the population to spend more time at home and at its immediate environment, the neighbourhood.

Bill Clinton's 1993-94 health care reform initiative was one of the most active and sustained presidential campaigns ever undertaken in support of a single social issue, and certainly the boldest attempt to establish national health insurance in the United States. An analysis of the Clinton campaign, therefore, reveals much about the politics of divided government in the late 20th century, the apparent end of the New Deal-Great Society approach to governance and the enduring democratic coalition which supported it, and, of course, the high stakes politics of health care reform. This study attempts to advance our understanding of why national health insurance has proven to be such a potent idea while seemingly impossible to accomplish. The work focuses on the political factors which derailed the Clintons' health care reform initiative, providing a case study of a most significant modern-day political and policy battle.

Family Diversity and Family Policy describes the dimensions of diversity which characterize the contemporary American family and discusses the implications for public policy and associated intervention programs linked to this diversity. The authors contend that if the programs and policies available to support families are to be most useful, they need to reflect the diversity of the families they intend to help. Beginning with a discussion of the historical and contemporary context of the American family, Family Diversity and Family Policy focuses on child poverty and argues that this topic may be usefully studied within the context of developmental systems theory. This theory systematically links the development of individuals to variations in their physical and social ecology, and is used as a framework for discussing: Contemporary challenges faced by parents charged with rearing adolescents, and the familial and societal issues that arise when the adolescents being reared are parents themselves. Current policy issues that arise from welfare debates in the United States and from recently-enacted welfare reform legislation. The importance for our nation of developing a comprehensive national youth policy. The authors draw implications for the design, delivery, and evaluation of diversity-sensitive policies and programs for families and youth, and offer a vision of how to link scholars, policy makers, and community members in multi-professional and multi-institutional collaborations promoting the positive development of American families and youth. Family Diversity and Family Policy is relevant to scholars and policy makers interested in human development, particularly of children andadolescents. In addition, it should be essential reading for practitioners and policy makers in government, private industry, and public and private social service organizations.

This volume of Research on Economic Inequality contains research on how we measure poverty, inequality and welfare and how these measurements contribute towards policies for social mobility. The volume contains eleven papers, some of which focus on the uneven impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on poverty and welfare. Opening with debates on theoretical issues that lie at the forefront of the measurement of inequality and poverty literature, the first two chapters go on to propose new methods for measuring wellbeing and inequality in multidimensional categorical environments, and for measuring pro-poor growth in a Bayesian setting. The following three papers present theoretical innovations for measuring poverty and inequality, namely, in estimating the dynamic probability of being poor using a Bayesian approach, and when presented with ordinal variables. The next three chapters are contributions on empirical methods in the measurement of poverty, inclusive economic growth and mobility, with a focus on India, Israel and a unique longitudinal dataset for Chile. The volume concludes with three chapters exploring the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as an economic shock on income and wealth poverty in EU countries and in an Argentinian city slum.

This book explores a variety of social risks and possible policy options that could be put in place to either prevent, or lessen the negative consequences of their materialisation. Pieters groups these policy issues into four major social risks -- income replacement in case of old age and survivorship; unemployment; incapacity for work; and social health care protection - all of which are crucial to the development of a social security system. Navigating Social Security Options draws on extensive knowledge of various national social security systems to compare their costs and benefits, taking into account both their structural elements (conditions of work, education and living), and cultural elements (influence of political parties, trade unions, employers' organisations, traditions). As a concise comparative point of reference, this book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of social policy and law, as well as policy makers.

The Richer, The Poorer charts the rollercoaster history of both rich and poor and the mechanisms that link wealth and impoverishment. This landmark book shows how, for 200 years, Britain's most powerful elites have enriched themselves at the expense of surging inequality, mass poverty and weakened social resilience. Stewart Lansley reveals how Britain's model of 'extractive capitalism' - with a small elite securing an excessive slice of the economic cake - has created a two-century-long 'high-inequality, high-poverty' cycle, one broken for only a brief period after the Second World War. Why, he asks, are rich and poor citizens judged by very different standards? Why has social progress been so narrowly shared? With growing calls for a fairer post-COVID-19 society, what needs to be done to break Britain's destructive poverty/inequality cycle?

Originally published in 1973, Social Security and Society examines of the dominant forces that form the British social security system and argues that social security provision is not the result of concern felt by the dominant groups in society. Instead the book suggests that it is the result of the threat posed to the status quo by the growing political power of the working class, and the realization by the dominant groups, that social security benefits are functional to economic growth and political stability. The book covers poverty, low pay, unemployment and equality, and demonstrates how social security measures reflect and reinforce the inequalities of the economic and social system - inequalities which are accepted, legitimised and approved by society.

Increasingly flexible labour markets and reforms of old-age pension systems are still ranking high on the political agenda of European countries. This volume investigates whether, and to what extent, the interplay between pension reforms and the spread of 'atypical' employment patterns and fragmented careers has a negative influence uponeconomic security in old age. The volume, therefore, analyzes the flexibility-security nexus by focusing on the post-retirement phase, thus extending the conventional narrow concept of 'flexicurity'. The book also questions whetherreforms of public and private pension schemes compensate or aggravate the risks of increasingly flexible labor markets and atypical employment careers after retirement? Around this overarching research question, the various contributions in the volume employ the same analytical framework in order to map, and then compare, the developments in seven European countries - Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK - which present different labour market arrangements and various degrees of flexibility, as well as diverse pension systems.

Social investment policies have enjoyed prominence during recent welfare reforms across the OECD world, and yet there is insufficient long-term strategy for their success. Reviewing labour market, family and education policies, this edited collection analyses the emergence of social investment policies in both Europe and East Asia. Adopting a life course perspective and examining both public and private investments, this book addresses key contemporary policy issues including care, learning, work, social mobility and inequalities. Providing original observations, this seminal text explores the roads and barriers towards effective social investment policies, derives practical social policy implications and highlights important lessons for future policymaking.