Welfare state structures and the structure of welfare state support: Attitudes towards social spending in Canada, 1993–2000

Abstract.  The comparative welfare state literature contends that different welfare state structures engender different structures of welfare state support. The argument is that social welfare regimes that distribute their benefits selectively tend to produce patterns of support graduated by the likelihood of accessing these selective (or 'targeted') social benefits, especially as indexed by social class. Where benefits are universally distributed, by contrast, support is expected to be more consensual and to cut across class and related cleavages. This article empirically tests this 'interest-based' account and extends it by adding a 'values-based' component. The authors find that the impact of both interests and values – specifically, orientations toward the capitalist system – on welfare state support is conditional on welfare state structures. It is argued that these results help to resolve a paradox in the comparative welfare state literature: strong evidence for differentiation in social welfare support by program type, but weak evidence for differentiation in class effects by program type. Data for the analysis come from the Canadian Election Studies of 1993, 1997 and 2000.     

The state of the welfare state: German social policy between macroeconomic retrenchment and microeconomic recalibration

Multiparty Government: The Politics of Coalition in Europe. By Michael Laver and Norman Schofield. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990. Pp. vii + 308. 32 figures, 26 tables. £35. ISBN 0–19–827292–8.

Minority Government and Majority Rule. By Kaare Strom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Pp. vii + 293. £25. ISBN 0521–37431–6.

Small Parties in Western Europe. Edited by Ferdinand Müller‐Rommel and Geoffrey Pridham. London: Sage Publications, 1991. Pp.240. £28.50. ISBN 0–8039–8261–5.

Legislatures. Oxford Readings in Politics and Government Series. Edited by Philip Norton. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Pp. ix + 336. £27.50 (hardback); £8.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–19–827582‐X and 827581–1.

Advances in the Spatial Theory of Voting. By Jamese Enelow and Melvin J. Hinich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. £27.50. ISBN 0–521–35284–3.

Political and Economic Encyclopaedia of Western Europe. Edited by Frances Nicholson. Longman Current Affairs, Harlow, 1990. Pp. 411. ISBN 0–582–06848–7.

World Guide to Environmental Issues and Organizations. Edited by Peter Brackley. Longman Current Affairs, Harlow, 1990. Pp.386. £75. ISBN 0–582–06270–5.

Portugal: O Sistema Político e Constitutional 1974–1987. Edited by Mario Baptista Coelho. Lisbon: Instituto de Ciéncias Sociais 1989. Pp. 1044. £15.

The Regions and European Integration. Edited by R. Leonardi and R.Y. Nanetti. London: PinterPublishers 1991. Pp. vi+200. £27.50 (hardback). ISBN0–86187–149–9.

Extremismus und Demokratie. Uwe Backes and Eckhard Jesse, Bonn, Bouvier Verlag, 1990. Pp.vi + 472; 13 tables, 10 documents. DM38 (hardback). ISBN 3–416–02255–6.

Political Loyalty and Public Service in West Germany: The 1972 Decree against Radicals and its Consequences. Gerard Braunthal, Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1990. Pp.xvi + 249, £18.40 (hardback). ISBN 0–87023–707–1.

Britain's Future in Europe. By Michael Franklin with Marc Wilkie. London: RIIA/Pinter, 1990. Pp.viii + 133. £19.50 (hardback); £7.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–86187–046–8 and 047–6.

European Competition Policy. Edited by Peter Montagnon. London: RIIA/ Pinter, 1990. Pp. vii + 135. £19.50 (hardback); £7.95 (paperback). ISBN 0–86187–885‐X.

The Technical Challenges and Opportunities of a United Europe. Edited by Michael Steinberg. London: Pinter, 1990. Pp.195. £30 (hardback). ISBN 0–86187–344–2.

Public Policy in Northern Ireland: Adoption or Adaptation? Edited by M. E. H. Connolly and S. Loughlin. Policy Research Institute, 1990. Pp.335. ISBN 1–870654–10–2.

Interpreting Northern Ireland. By John Whyte. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990. Pp.xii + 308. £35. ISBN 0–19–827848–9.

The Future of Northern Ireland. Edited by John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990. Pp.xx + 376. £40. ISBN 0–19–827329–0.     

Between workfare and enablement – The different paths to transformation of the welfare state: A comparative analysis of activating labour market policies

Abstract.  The concepts that address different paths to transformation of the welfare state as a 'workfare', an 'enabling' or an 'activating' state share the idea that traditional welfare policies, mostly aiming at decommodification, are more and more replaced by social policies emphasising (re-)commodification. Activating labour market policy therefore is supposed to play a central role within the paradigm shift of welfare state policies. It is understood to involve a mix of the enforcement of labour market participation, the conditioning of rights and growing obligations of the individual at one side, and an increase of services in order to promote employability and restore social equity at the other. In this article, the different perceptions of the workfare and the enabling state perspectives on the positive and negative aspects of activating policies are reconstructed as 'pure forms' in order to obtain theoretical standards against which the empirical cases of activating labour market policies in Denmark, the United Kingdom and Germany are characterised and compared. The actual reform path is described by a combination of two indicators: the strength of the workfare and the strength of the enabling elements of the activating labour market policies. The evidence on activating labour market reforms confirms that in both dimensions a move in the same direction is taking place, but without producing growing convergence. Different welfare state types keep on producing different mixes of workfare and enabling policies, leading to very different levels of decommodification and (re-)commodification. Thus, an ongoing divergence of policies also exists within the new paradigm of an activating labour market policy, although single countries seem to change their alignment to a particular welfare state type.     

An approach to the legislative production of the Spanish parliament (1979–1982)

Abstract. Analysis of Spain's first constitutional legislature (1979–1982) reveals (with the logical reservations derived from the fact that this was the first democratic legislature after the many years of Franco's dictatorship) the Spanish Parliament's important influence on the legislative process in terms of both initiating legislation and proposing amendments to bills introduced. This influence may possibly have stemmed from the fragile government of Union de Centro Democrático (UCD) at a time when the party had only a relative majority in Parliament and was torn by serious internal problems, both ideological and personal, which caused it to all but disappear in the 1982 election. All of this took place within the framework of a system of centralized political decision-making in which political leaders played a starring role.     

Alternative patterns of welfare state development: The case of public assistance in the Netherlands

Among the numerous studies of the development of welfare states, less attention has been paid to the smaller European democracies. In an attempt to address this problem, this article investigates the development of public assistance programmes in the Netherlands. The historical record shows that the development of the Dutch public assistance programme has been more contentious than the development of similar programmes in other countries. An explanation for political controversy surrounding Dutch public assistance focuses on the manifestation of corporatism in a policy area that involved private charity organisations, rather than labour and capital interests. The incorporation of private charities permitted them to slow state encroachment on their activities. Implications of the case for the study of corporatism in other countries are discussed.     

The Influence of EU Membership on Methods and Processes of Budgeting in Britain and France, 1970–1995

This article explores the impact European Union (EU) integration has had on methods and processes of budgeting in France and Britain from 1970 to 1995. It assesses whether convergence of budgetary institutions occurs and, if so, whether it is promoted by an obligation of compliance or by an hybridization effect. Compliance refers to changes in national budgetary institutions made compulsory by membership in the EU. Hybridization emphasizes that national and EU budgetary processes are increasingly interwoven and indivisible. Public budgeting is no longer purely national because part of the decision-making on national expenditure is made at the EU level and because the national budget is closely linked to the EU budget in financial and policy terms. Based on an institutional analysis, combined with elite interviewing, the article suggests that hybridization is a significant factor contributing to a convergence of budgetary practices in Britain and France. Underlying the argument is the fact that an increasingly important function of departmental actors involves negotiating with their EU counterparts at the EU level, in addition to the conventional budgetary game at the domestic level. Regarding compliance, there is an influence as testified by significant formal institutional convergence. However, compliance seems a less effective factor in influencing convergence than hybridization because it conveys a "negative" approach to convergence, based on enforcement and sanctions. The article suggests that the convergence of administrative systems is promoted by the growing similarity of administrative practices more than by the harmonization of rules.     

Nuclear consequences of the welfare state revisited: Danger in the data

My thanks to Eric Noble for computational assistance.     

The role of credible commitments in state finance

Margaret Levi's Of Rule and Revenue raises a host of important problems in the theory of the state. It provides an important step in the development of a theory that combines economic and political institutions into the same framework, potentially allowing scholars to address important issues such as the divergent economic paths taken by various states. It will therefore be an important book, and warrants attention. This approach holds much promise for the development of a theory of institutional development of the state from the middle ages onward.I have tried to sketch some additional directions for the theory to develop, pointing toward the answer of questions not directly faced by Levi — or for that matter, by much of the public choice literature: How do we explain the evolution of a predatory state into one with explicit limits on its powers? How do we explain the rise of representative institutions? Answering these questions often requires looking beyond the individual state to its international context. Competition among states, especially in the form of war, plays a key role here, and has two consequences. First, a major consequence of large-scale wars was fiscal stress. At such times, even a preditory state might agree to exchange limitations on its own powers for revenue. Second, the brief discussion of early modern Europe suggests that states with limited government might have had a financial advantage over those which were not so limited. The latter played a major role in the successful Dutch revolt against Spain and in the English defeat of France.     

中国改革进程中的政治逻辑

改革开放的突破在于实行社会主义市场经济,源于人类处于满足生存资料需求和发展资料需求不同阶段对于"计划"与"市场"的诉求不同。新时代社会主义市场经济条件下,政治逻辑的发展为社会主义生产方式的创新发展提供了理论支持,对于有效治国理政、推进党和人民事业发展具有重要意义。     

Output of the Spanish Cortes (1979–2000): A case of adaptation to party government

Abstract.  This article considers the activity of the Spanish Cortes in law production and the control of the executive during the six parliaments of the democratic government. It mainly examines the output of the lower chamber due to the asymmetrical bicameralism and weak status of the Senate. In Spain, the legislative output has been dependent on different situations of party government. In general terms, the Cortes have been always very active in controlling the executive and its participation in law-making was highly relevant when there was a minority government. Because parties are central actors in parliament and due to the strong party discipline in the Spanish case, the author mainly studied parliament output from the viewpoint of strategies of opposition parties. Sometimes parties behaved in parliament procedures in a competitive way, while in others they behave cooperatively. There was a great variety of patterns of strategic behaviour on account of the different situations of party government and the diverse opposition parties. Half of the parliaments had minority governments in which minority parties played a very important role by supporting the government in parliament; however, the main opposition party was never the same since there were two changes of government.     

Governance in Crisis and withering of the welfare state: the legacy of the policy sciences

The introductory essay to this special issue on Governance in Crisis has three objectives. Firstly, it tries to show that current dilemmas of governance in advanced industrial Western nations can be analysed within the common framework of the thesis of the withering of the modern welfare state. Secondly, it argues that the policy sciences have a legacy of problem-oriented and value-conscious scholarship, bestowed by Lasswell and others, which can and should be taken up in the analysis of the comprehensive problems of governance confronting advanced industrial nations. Thirdly, it considers the requirement that the policy sciences go significantly beyond a managerial perspective and take up the timely but challenging task of linking up problem-orientation to contextuality. Contributions to this issue are seen to constitute a promising step in this direction.