Overview
- Provides an interdisciplinary perspective on the welfare state and social inequality
- Analyzes multiple strands of welfare state policy
- Offers large-scale empirical comparisons between a range of OECD countries
Part of the book series: Transformations of the State (TRST)
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Keywords
Table of contents (13 chapters)
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Welfare State Transformations and Inequality: Concepts and Trends
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Policy Fields
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National versus Global Inequalities
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Conclusion
Reviews
“This important volume bridges literatures on welfare-state transformations and on rising inequality in OECD countries. The volume breaks new ground by looking beyond income inequality, taking into account other forms of social and economic inequality. The editors and contributors explore how welfare-state responsiveness to market-generated inequality has changed over time, but also how institutional changes across a wide range of policy domains have themselves generated inequality. The volume strikes a sensible balance between cross-national diversity and OECD-wide trends. More importantly, it brings out the importance of looking at specific policy domains in order to understand how welfare-state transformations relate to rising inequality.” (Jonas Pontusson, University of California, Berkeley, USA)
“This outstanding volume examines the impact of welfare state transformations on the development of social inequality. Recent decades have witnessed a rise in market income inequality across post-industrial democracies that has only partially been offset by redistribution through the welfare state. The authors, all well known welfare state experts, examine the causes of this rise in market income inequality and the consequences of welfare state changes for the emerging patterns of inequality and redistribution in both the aggregate and in a number of specific policy areas. The volume is must reading for social scientists interested in the vitally important topics of the welfare state and inequality. “ (John D. Stephens, Gehard E. Lenski, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology and Director of the Center for European Studies and European Union Center of Excellence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)
“This impressive volume brings together first-rate research on the welfare state’s changing role in shaping economic, social and political inequality in OECD countries. Theauthors meticulously explore recent empirical trends and developments in all major social policy fields and convincingly show that the shift to supply-side social policies has increased inequality. The welfare state may not have become slimmer, but social policies have certainly become much less protective and less redistributive. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in social policies and their impact on inequality.” (Kees van Kersbergen, Aarhus University, Denmark)
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Tonia Bieber is Senior Researcher at the Kolleg-Forschergruppe ‘Transformative Power of Europe’ of the Otto-Suhr-Institute, Free University of Berlin, Germany.
Stephan Leibfried is Research Professor for Public Policy at the University of Bremen, Germany.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Welfare State Transformations and Inequality in OECD Countries
Editors: Melike Wulfgramm, Tonia Bieber, Stephan Leibfried
Series Title: Transformations of the State
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51184-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-51183-6Published: 17 March 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-70248-0Published: 04 November 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-51184-3Published: 07 March 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 321
Topics: Politics of the Welfare State, Social Structure, Social Inequality, Comparative Social Policy, Globalization, Social Justice, Equality and Human Rights, European Politics