Handbook on the Political Economy of Social Policy: (Elgar Handbooks in Social Policy and Welfare series)

Research in social policy has been greatly influenced by the emergence of modern political economy in the late 1970s. The Handbook on the Political Economy of Social Policy offers a systematic, yet comprehensive, framework for understanding how concepts, theoretical standpoints and methodological approaches stemming from political economy have been applied to the study of social policies, and models of welfare provision. The authors also signpost current developments and discuss their likely impact on future research. With contributions from leading scholars in social policy, political science and political economy, The Handbook explores the key theoretical standpoints for understanding how social policies are introduced and/or reformed. These include historical institutionalism, the role of ideas, the influence of political parties and of political attitudes and preferences. The contributors also discuss key methodological approaches for understanding how social policies are adopted and how they change – from the case-study approach to more comparative approaches. Analysis of the applications of political economy approaches within social policy covers housing, welfare, labour relations and pensions as well as examining regional cases from across the globe. Offering a comprehensive overview of the current state of scholarship on the political economy of social policy, this Handbook will be crucial reading for scholars and students of social policy, welfare state analysis, area studies, political science, political economy and sociology.

Table of Contents:
Contents: List of contributors vii 1 Introduction: what is political economy and social policy? 1 Bent Greve, Minna Van Gerven and Amílcar Moreira PART I THEORIES AND MECHANISMS 2 Historical institutionalism and social policy 15 Ian Greener and Martin Powell 3 The micro-foundations of social policy: attitudes and preferences 26 Marius R. Busemeyer 4 Ideas as explanations in social policy analysis 40 Daniel Béland and Ronen Mandelkern 5 The resurgence of partisanship in social policymaking 52 Ian P. McManus 6 Welfare state, rent seeking and interest groups 68 François Facchini PART II METHODS 7 Within-case and process tracing analysis: reviewing challenges and opportunities for social policy research 81 Hyungyung Moon and Antonios Roumpakis 8 The configurational approach in comparative social policy analysis: advances in capturing the impact of globalisation on social policymaking in moderate-n research designs 92 Stefan Kühner, Gibrán Cruz-Martínez and Nan Yang 9 Studying the welfare state by analysing time-series cross-section data 104 Federico Podestà 10 Measuring welfare regimes across space and time: a preliminary review of methods and substance 117 Emanuele Ferragina and Federico Danilo Filetti PART III APPLICATIONS 11 The political economy of poverty and inequality 130 Paolo Agnolin, Elena Marsegli and Zachary Parolin 12 The political economy of fiscal welfare 142 Emmanuele Pavolini, Matteo Jessoula and Marcello Natili 13 Global taxation and national welfare states 154 Priyaranjan Jha and Rahul Mukherjee 14 How organized interests shape labour relations and social policies 166 Benedikt Bender and Bernhard Ebbinghaus 15 The political economy of active labour market policy 179 Giuliano Bonoli 16 The political economy of pension policy 191 Bernhard Ebbinghaus and Tobias Wiß 17 Care regimes in Europe: a dynamic view of typologies and evolving long-term care policies over time 206 Cassandra Simmons, Viktoria Szenkurök and Ricardo Rodrigues 18 Political economy of housing policy 219 Stephan Köppe and Michael Byrne 19 Local policy development 233 Elisabetta Mocca and Yuri Kazepov 20 Quo vadis European welfare states: united in diversity or steering towards convergence? 244 Minna van Gerven and Bent Greve 21 Latin American social policy from the 2000s to the COVID-19 pandemic: a tale of successes and shortcomings 254 Camila Arza and Juliana Martínez Franzoni 22 Political economy of the East Asian welfare states: partisan politics in social investment policies in South Korea and Taiwan 266 Ijin Hong, Fen-ling Chen and Shih-Jiunn Shi 23 Europe’s comparative political economy of social investment reform in times of recession and pandemic 283 Anton Hemerijck 24 How to balance sustainability and social policy? 297 Milena Büchs 25 Conclusion: the political economy of social policy – a brief state of the art 309 Amílcar Moreira, Minna Van Gerven and Bent Greve

About the Author :
Edited by Bent Greve, Professor in Social Science, Department of Social Sciences and Business, University of Roskilde, Denmark, Amílcar Moreira, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Lisbon School of Economics & Management, University of Lisbon, Portugal and Minna van Gerven, Professor of Social Policy, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland

Review :
‘The Handbook should be a valuable resource for researchers, teachers and students, providing them with a useful overview of the state of the art, bringing together leading research and researchers. For academics teaching senior classes in social policy, political economy or comparative analysis, the Handbook offers useful tools for analysis.’ ‘It is easy to say that the study of social policy can benefit from utilizing the perspectives of political economy. It is quite another thing to demonstrate the wisdom of doing so. This volume does both – by thoughtfully bringing together a collection of insightful essays that explore the theory behind the process followed by essays that provide concrete applications that illustrate real-world situations.’ ‘This valuable volume provides a penetrating introduction to the comparative political economy of social policy, along with cutting-edge methodological, conceptual, and research contributions. With top scholars tackling a dazzling array of topics, this one-stop resource is certain to be illuminating and inspiring for students, instructors, and researchers alike.’ 'In the Handbook on the Political Economy of Social PolicyBent Greve, Amílcar Moreira and Minna van Gerven have compiled an excellent collection of works that examine the link between political economy and social policy providing new insights into contemporary policy developments and welfare states reforms.’