Welfare States in Transition: National Adaptations in Global Economies

This wide-ranging comparative analysis of contemporary and future changes in welfare states looks at the different trajectories of the welfare states of Europe, North America, the Antipodes, and the emerging scenarios in Latin America, East Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. Leading experts on each of these regions examine the current structures of social protection, consider the causes of the current welfare state crisis and highlight evolving trends for welfare policy. Different welfare states are shown to manifest different forms of crisis. Among the symptoms of crisis, Welfare States in Transition suggests that the effect of popluation ageing is exaggerated, and an at least equally fundamental challenge lies in the revolution of the modern family and the changing economic role of women. The contributors are sceptical about the neo-liberal formula for reform, not only because it increases inequality but also because it does not address the growing need for an active social investment policy to ensure against entrapment in poverty or low-paid jobs.

Table of Contents:
Foreword - Dharam Ghai After the Golden Age? Welfare State Dilemmas in a Global Economy - G[sl]osta Esping-Andersen PART ONE: DECLINE OR RENEWAL IN THE ADVANCED WELFARE STATES? The Scandinavian Welfare States - John D Stephens Achievements, Crisis and Prospects Welfare States without Work - G[sl]osta Esping-Andersen The Impasse of Labour Shedding and Familialism in Continental European Social Policy Needs-Based Strategies of Social Protection in Australia and New Zealand - Francis G Castles When Markets Fail - John Myles Social Welfare in Canada and the United States PART TWO: EMERGING NEW WELFARE STATES? Options for Social Policy in Latin America - Evelyne Huber Neoliberal versus Social Democratic Models The East Asian Welfare States - Roger Goodman and Ito Peng Peripatetic Learning, Adaptive Change and Nation-Building Social Protection in Central and Eastern Europe - Guy Standing A Tale of Slipping Anchors and Torn Safety Nets CONCLUSION Positive-Sum Solutions in a World of Trade-Offs? - G[sl]osta Esping-Andersen

About the Author :
G[sl]osta Esping-Andersen is Professor of Comparative Social Systems at the University of Trento. He is the author of Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (1990) and Politics against Markets (1985), and the editor of Changing Classes (1993) CONTRIBUTORS OUTSIDE WESTERN HEMISPHERE Francis G Castles ANU Canberra Roger Goodman University of Oxford Ito Peng University of Oxford Guy Standing ILO Geneva

Review :
`An impressive editorial feat which attests to the potential for well-structured and consistently integrated comparative social analysis providing, not only a cogent evaluation of the ironies of current policy developments, but also asserting that economic and political configurations may well ensure that "welfare states in transition" could retain the most positive and popularly valued elements of their "aquis"′ - British Journal of Sociology `Welfare States in Transition gives a comprehensive overview of the current state of affairs, as well as the problems of, on the one hand, the "established" welfare states, and, on the other, some of the states that do not have comprehensive welfare schemes, but which struggle with the social policy issues, and have to make decisions which also have an impact on the belief in the `welfare′ concept as a whole.′ Acta Sociologica `This important collection of studies by political scientists and sociologists investigates the diverse responses of welfare states to their increasing unaffordability.′ Population and Development Review `This wide-ranging comparative analysis of contemporary and future changes in welfare states looks at the different trajectories of such states in Europe, North America and the Antipodes, and the emerging scenarios in Latin America, East Asia and Central and eastern Europe. Authors from these regions examine the current structures of social protection, consider the causes of the current welfare state crisis, and highlight evolving trends for welfare policy.′ International Social Security Review ′This volume contains nine chapters developed out of a study originally commissioned by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development as part of its preparations for the Copenhagen World Summit in March 1995.... an exceptionally coherent book which offers readers clear and wide-ranging access to some of the most innovative and informed analysis currently being produced by students of welfare states. In the editor′s, words, it tackles "the future of the beleaguered welfare states of Western Europe, North America and the Antipodes (Australia and New Zealand), and the prospects for welfare state construction in the newly democratised nations in East Asia, Latin America and East Central Europe"... What is distinctive about the analysis found in all the chapters of this book is that it places the operation of welfare systems at the very heart of the adjustments that countries are having to make, or sometimes failing to make, in the face of a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive world market.... an exceptionally informed and intelligent debate about the future of the welfare state.′ John Baldock - Policy Studies