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A comparative analysis of the politics of national health insurance in Sweden, France and Switzerland, showing how the Swedes have developed the most 'socialized' health system in Western Europe, the Swiss the most 'privatized' and the French a conflict-ridden compromise between the two.
Health Politics in Europe: A Handbook is a major new reference work, which provides historical background and up-to-date information and analysis on health politics and health systems throughout Europe. In particular, it captures developments that have taken place since the end of the Cold War, a turning point for many European health systems, with most post-communist transition countries privatizing their state-run health systems, and many Western European health systems experimenting with new public management and other market-oriented health reforms. Following three introductory, stage-setting chapters, the handbook offers country cases divided into seven regional sections, each of which ...
Comparative analysis of pension systems in the EU-15 countries and Switzerland. Gives an overview of the political institutions and party systems, and traces the proposed and enacted pension reforms since the 1980s.
This edited collection uses democratic forums to study what people want from the welfare state in five European countries. The forum method yields new insights into how people frame social issues, their priorities and acceptable solutions. This is the first time democratic forums have been used as a research tool in this field. The contributors’ research show that most people recognize growing inequality, population ageing, paying for health care and pensions, social care and immigration as areas where the welfare state faces real challenges. The most striking findings are the high level of support across all countries for social investment, and the way justifications for this vary between welfare state regimes. The authors also explore key areas such as immigration and intergenerational differences. Attitudes, Aspirations and Welfare will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including politics, social policy and sociology, as well as policy-makers.
This is part of a ten volume set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of political science. This work explores the business end of politics, where theory meets practice in the pursuit of public good.
Throughout the West, democracy is under fire. "Government is part of the problem, not the solution" is a common refrain. As the tasks of the state become more complex and the size of polities larger, the institutional forms of liberal democracy developed in the 19th century seem increasingly unable to cope. Rather than seeking to deepen the democratic character of politics, much energy in recent years has been directed as reducing the role of politics altogether. In Associations and Democracy, Joshua Cohen and Joel Rogers advance an innovative scheme for rejuvenating the democratic state. Their proposal involves the strengthening of secondary associations, organizations like unions, works co...
The authors propose a new theory of political behavior that re-invigorates the role of institutions—from laws and bureaucracy to rituals and symbols—as essential to understanding the modern political and economic systems that guide contemporary life.
These essays demonstrate how the 'historical institutional' approach to the study of politics reveals the nature of institutional change and its effect on policy making.
In this innovative analysis of how government works, Mark Sproule-Jones examines the underlying arrangements, or ‘rules’, that operate between levels of government and the execution of public policy. He begins by identifying three levels of rules. Rules at the lowest or operational level determine how policies are delivered. Next, at the institutional level, are the rules that determine which institutions operate at the lowest level. Finally, rules at the constitutional level define which institutions can make the determinations. These layers are reproduced in multiple hierarchies throughout the national and international structures in which Canadian public policy operates. The author then explores three public policies as they converge in one location: commercial shipping, pleasure boating, and a water-quality management in the harbour at Hamilton, Ontario. In the context of rule configurations, Sproule-Jones evaluates these public policies with reference to legal doctrine, technical matters, the operation of political institutions, and constitutional constraints.
The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State is the authoritative and definitive guide to the contemporary welfare state. In a volume consisting of nearly fifty newly-written chapters, a broad range of the world's leading scholars offer a comprehensive account of everything one needs to know about the modern welfare state. The book is divided into eight sections. It opens with three chapters that evaluate the philosophical case for (and against) the welfare state. Surveys of the welfare state 's history and of the approaches taken to its study are followed by four extended sections, running to some thirty-five chapters in all, which offer a comprehensive and in-depth survey of our current state ...