This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of how politics shape housing markets and vice-versa. It demonstrates how housing impacts a variety of social and political phenomenon including populist politics, generational divides, wealth inequality, monetary policy, and the welfare state. Housing and housing markets have important implications for economic stability, public policy, domestic politics and wealth inequality in Europe and beyond. Yet despite its importance, housing has received relatively little attention in comparative politics scholarship. The contributions within this volume push the scholarship of housing into fresh, innovative directions. The chapters focus on housing’s contribution to wealth inequality, how housing constrains governments’ policy choices in welfare state reform and how it can strengthen governments’ hands in financial regulation. Other contributions reveal the impact of housing on central bankers’ motivations for implementing monetary expansion, highlight the generational divide in gaining access to home-ownership, demonstrate how housing-driven wealth inequality steers voters political preferences towards right-wing populism, and explain how housing gradually shifted from being a social right to an object of investment in Europe, even within its most egalitarian states. These contributions cover a diversity of cases in Western and Eastern Europe and theoretical paradigms that will appeal to scholars and policy makers alike. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.

This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of how politics shape housing markets and vice-versa. It demonstrates how housing impacts a variety of social and political phenomenon including populist politics, generational divides, wealth inequality, monetary policy, and the welfare state. Housing and housing markets have important implications for economic stability, public policy, domestic politics and wealth inequality in Europe and beyond. Yet despite its importance, housing has received relatively little attention in comparative politics scholarship. The contributions within this volume push the scholarship of housing into fresh, innovative directions. The chapters focus on housing's contribution to wealth inequality, how housing constrains governments' policy choices in welfare state reform and how it can strengthen governments' hands in financial regulation. Other contributions reveal the impact of housing on central bankers' motivations for implementing monetary expansion, highlight the generational divide in gaining access to home-ownership, demonstrate how housing-driven wealth inequality steers voters political preferences towards right-wing populism, and explain how housing gradually shifted from being a social right to an object of investment in Europe, even within its most egalitarian states. These contributions cover a diversity of cases in Western and Eastern Europe and theoretical paradigms that will appeal to scholars and policy makers alike. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.

Ranging from influence over world trade laws affecting health to population health issues such as obesity to the use of comparative data to affect policy, the EU's public health policies are increasingly important, visible, expensive and effective. They also provide an invaluable case study for those who want to understand the growth and impact of the EU as well as how states can affect their populations' lives and health. European Union Public Health Policy capitalizes on extensive new research, providing an introduction to the topic and indicating new intellectual directions surrounding the topic. An introductory section and extended conclusion explore the meaning of public health, the relationship of EU public health policy to health care policy, and the place of public health in the study of European integration and Europeanization. Focusing on health system transformation, global health governance and population health, the chapters address: Relevant policy issues and EU policies; Effects of the EU policies on practice or outcomes; An explanation of the policy trajectory; Current issues and likely future directions or conflicts. Drawing together an international and multidisciplinary selection of experts, this volume is an important contribution for all those interested in public health policy, EU health policy and EU governance.

Ranging from influence over world trade laws affecting health to population health issues such as obesity to the use of comparative data to affect policy, the EU's public health policies are increasingly important, visible, expensive and effective. They also provide an invaluable case study for those who want to understand the growth and impact of the EU as well as how states can affect their populations' lives and health. European Union Public Health Policy capitalizes on extensive new research, providing an introduction to the topic and indicating new intellectual directions surrounding the topic. An introductory section and extended conclusion explore the meaning of public health, the relationship of EU public health policy to health care policy, and the place of public health in the study of European integration and Europeanization. Focusing on health system transformation, global health governance and population health, the chapters address: Relevant policy issues and EU policies; Effects of the EU policies on practice or outcomes; An explanation of the policy trajectory; Current issues and likely future directions or conflicts. Drawing together an international and multidisciplinary selection of experts, this volume is an important contribution for all those interested in public health policy, EU health policy and EU governance.

What effect is market integration having on national cultures and social policies? Paulette Kurzer examines Finnish and Swedish alcohol policy, Dutch drug decriminalization policy, and the Irish ban on abortion. She finds that regional integration is leading to adjustments that bring abortion, drug policy, and restrictive drinking measures into closer alignment within the EU. Kurzer's conclusion is that shifts in values and attitudes, affected in part by EU market integration, are bringing about a gradual convergence in morality norms.

What effect is market integration having on national cultures and social policies? Paulette Kurzer examines Finnish and Swedish alcohol policy, Dutch drug decriminalization policy, and the Irish ban on abortion. She finds that regional integration is leading to adjustments that bring abortion, drug policy, and restrictive drinking measures into closer alignment within the EU. Kurzer's conclusion is that shifts in values and attitudes, affected in part by EU market integration, are bringing about a gradual convergence in morality norms.