Political Science

This original study of the impact of EU-induced liberalization of service provision on member states argues that innovative national re-regulatory strategies may be implemented in response to Europeanization. Drawing on detailed case studies of ten European countries, this book bridges the gap between the rapidly unfolding scholarly debate on Europeanization and varieties of capitalism. It argues that both strongly neocorporatist systems of political-economic governance and statist systems are capable of creating swift, comprehensive and thorough national re-regulations. This applies to Austria and France, but also Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. By contrast, countries with less strongly embedded neocorporatist structures (in which due to organizational deficiencies trade unions face difficulties blocking employer demands) create liberal response strategies, permitting a stratification of wage levels. Hence, both Germany and the Netherlands implemented liberal business-friendly re-regulations. This book makes the case for important amendments to existing accounts of Europeanization and varieties of capitalism. Scholars of Europeanization need to incorporate bottom-up re-regulation into their conceptual framework, particularly in response to ‘negative integration’. Recent strides in comparative political economy have placed great emphasis on continued divergence, yet this study suggests that even within the presumably unified group of ‘non-liberal’ coordinated market economies, important institutional differences produce very distinct responses in the face of European liberalization.

The ongoing privatization of pensions – the shift from state to private responsibility for old age retirement income – raises fundamental issues of social and participatory rights. While pay-as-you-go-financed public pension systems face sustainability problems due to an ageing society, the recent financial crisis reveals the problematic nature of funded private pensions that fall short of expected returns. What have been the experiences in developed multipillar systems in providing adequate pensions for all? What can be learned for those pension systems currently under reform? This edited book compares the varieties of pension governance in ten European countries. It contrasts the experience of developed multipillar systems such as Britain, the Netherlands, and Switzerland with emerging multipillar systems in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden as well as the still dominantly Bismarckian social insurance systems of Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy. Each of the ten country chapters investigates how and why old age income responsibilities have been shifted from the state to employers, unions, and individuals. The country experts first describe the changing public–private pension mix and then discuss the particular features of the private (occupational and personal) pensions. They answer four major questions: who is covered, what kind of benefits, who pays, and who governs private pensions? In addition, three comparative analyses review the long-term institutional change from public to multipillar pension systems, map the cross-national variations in regulation and governance of private pensions, and investigate the consequences for old age income inequality in Europe.

This book explores the origins, content and consequences of Third Way social policy reform in the welfare systems of industrialized economies. It considers the extent to which Third Way ideology and institutional structures converge or vary in various national settings. The book is divided into three parts. Part I traces the political and historical development of the Third Way social policy agenda. Part II focuses on the areas central to restructuring welfare states. Part III discusses the meaning of a Third Way approach of social policy.

This book deals with the impact of welfare states on immigrants' social rights, economic well-being and social inclusion, and it offers the first systematic comparison of immigrants' social rights across welfare states. To study immigrants' social rights the author develops an analytical framework that focuses on the interplay between 1) the type of welfare state regime, 2) forms of entry, or entry categories, and 3) the incorporation regime regulating the inclusion or exclusion of immigrants. The book maps out the development of immigrants' social rights from the early postwar period until around 2010 in six countries representing different welfare state regimes: the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden and Denmark. Part I addresses three major issues. The first is how inclusive or exclusionary welfare state policies are in relation to immigrants, and especially how the type of welfare state and incorporation regime affect their social rights. The second issue concerns changes in immigrant rights and the direction of the change: rights extension versus rights contraction. The third issue is how immigrants' social rights compare to those of citizens. Part II shifts from policies affecting immigrant rights to the politics of the policies. It examines the politics of inclusion and exclusion in the six countries, focusing on social rights extension and contraction and changes in the policy dimensions of the incorporation regime that impinge on immigrant rights.