The puzzle of Dutch welfare state retrenchment

In the literature on welfare state retrenchment and in the general emphasis on the resilience of welfare states, the Dutch case appears puzzling by virtue of the fact that significant retrenchments have actually taken place in the Netherlands. It appears even more puzzling considering that the arguments in this literature as to the difficulties in welfare state retrenchments apply very well to this case, whereas the arguments as to why after all welfare state retrenchments are possible do not apply particularly well. This article argues that the explanation for the Dutch puzzle should be found in Dutch politics. Due to the power of the CDA as a pivotal centre party, the PvdA was at an early stage forced to accept welfare state retrenchment. A party consensus thus emerged allowing Dutch governments to define the issue of welfare state retrenchment as a matter of economic necessity.     

Parliamentary government in different shapes

This article focuses on the principles of parliamentary government and the implementation of these principles. Empirically, the study includes 239 cabinet formations in Europe after World War II. The results show that the party structure significantly affects the way the principles of majority, plurality and responsiveness are put into practice. In two‐party systems, institutional arrangements guarantee that the principles are implemented. In consensual multi‐party systems, the principles are largely implemented as well. However, in non‐consensual multi‐party systems, often including one dominant party, it is much more difficult to fulfil the ideals of parliamentary government. The study also shows that the majority element greatly increases government stability.     

Reviews

Enrique Leff: Ecologia y Capital: Hacia una perspectiva ambiental del desarrollo (Ecology and Capital: Toward an Environmentalist Perspective on Development). Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, 1986?

Martin Ryle: Ecology and Socialism. Century Hutchinson, London, 1988.

Klaus Eder: Die Vergesellschaftung der Natur: Studien zur sozialen Evolution der praktischen Vernunft (The Socialization of Nature: Studies on the Social Evolution of Practical Reason). Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt, 1988.     

Joblessness and poverty in America's central cities: Causes and policy prescriptions

Abstract

Two paradigms pervade the policy debate on the causes of urban joblessness and poverty: (1) a structural, nonvoluntaristic perspective emphasizing the roles of urban economic change, residential segregation, and spatial and skills mismatches, and (2) a rational‐choice, voluntaristic perspective contending that the generosity and ready availability of welfare programs have removed the incentive for poor persons to accept low‐paying jobs. This article brings together propositions of each paradigm into a comprehensive theoretical model. The study measured and tested key causal operators of the model for a sample of 67 large U.S. cities, with special attention to race and gender.

Results show that structural and welfare disincentive perspectives are not in conflict but rather operate side by side to reinforce joblessness and poverty. Race and gender, especially the role of urban space for women's work, are important. The article raises pertinent policy issues derived from the two perspectives and from the analysis.     

Mature suburbs,property values,and decline in the midwest? The case of Cuyahoga county

Abstract

For most U.S. homeowners, a home represents the biggest investment they will ever make, and until recently, most expected the value of their property to rise. If the mature suburbs in which many of these homeowners live have problems or are in decline, property values could decrease and investment value will be lost.

We define mature suburbs for Cuyahoga County, OH (the Cleveland area), and analyze the property values of single‐family homes there. We examine how property values have behaved in mature suburbs compared with the central city and developing suburbs and analyze specific factors that have influenced the property value of single‐family homes in these three submarkets from 1985 to 2000. Our analyses show that there is no overall decline in nominal property values. Housing space, nearness to workplaces and transportation networks, and tax rates are important variables in the model, affecting mature suburbs and developing suburbs differently.     

Book review

Aspects of Development and Underdevelopment. By Joan Robinson. Cambridge‐Cambridge University Press (Modern Cambridge Economics), 1979. Pp. x + 146. Hardback £7.95, paperback £2.50.

From Modernization to Modes of Production: a critique of the sociologies of development and underdevelopment. By John G. Taylor. London: Macmillan, 1979. Pp. xii + 335. Hardback £12, paperback £4.95.

Theories of Underdevelopment. By Ian Roxborough. London: Macmillan, 1979. Pp. xii + 175. Hardback £10, paperback £3.95.

Development Administration: Concepts, Goals, Methods. By George F. Gant. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979. Pp. xii + 343. $21.50.

Developing Country Debt. Edited by Lawrence G. Franco and Marilyn J. Seiber. New York: Pergamon Press, 1979. Pp. xi + 309. £20.

The Lending Policy of the World Bank in the 1970s: Analysis and Evaluation. By Bettina S. Hürni. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1980. Pp. xvi + 173. $20.

The World Bank and the Poor. By Aart van de Laar. Boston, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1980. Pp. xii + 260. $15.

The New Authoritarianism in Latin America. Edited by David Collier. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979. Pp. v + 456. Hardback £15.10, paperback £3.65.

The Political Economy of Peru 1956–78: Economic development and the restructuring of capital. By E. V. K. FitzGerald. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Pp. xi + 360. £17.50.

Scarcity and Survival in Central America. By William H. Durham. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979. Pp. xvii + 209. £14.50.

Peasants and Poverty: A Study of Haiti. By Mats Lundahl. London: Croom Helm, 1979. Pp. 699. £19.95.

The Rational Peasant: The Political Economy of Rural Society in Vietnam. By Samuel L. Popkin. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. Pp. xxi + 306. £9.

The Economy of Kenya: the Kenyatta Era. By Arthur Hazlewood. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979. Pp. x + 231. Hardback £9, paperback £4.95.

Chinese Education in Transition: Prelude to the Cultural Revolution. By Julia Kwong. Montreal: McGill‐Queen's University Press, 1979. Pp. xi + 207 $13.95.

Hydropolitics of the Nile Valley. By John Waterbury. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1979. Pp. xii + 301. $20.

The Volta River Project: A Case Study in Politics and Technology. By David Hart. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1980. Pp. 142. £7.50.

Economic Development, Cities and Planning: The Case of Bombay. By Nigel Harris. Bombay: Oxford University Press, 1979. Pp. vi + 93. £5.15.

Sociological Analysis of the Working of Small Farmers Development Agency. By Mumtaz Ali Khan. Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Study, 1978. Pp. x + 175. Rs. 32.

Planning for Basic Needs in Kenya: Performance, Policies and Prospects. By Dharam Ghai, Martin Godfrey and Franklyn Lisk. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1979. Pp. x + 167. £5.

Women in Rural Development: the People's Republic of China. By Elisabeth Croll. Geneva: International Labour Office, 1979. Pp. 61. Paperback, £3.75.     

Debt and the developing countries: A note on optimal international borrowing

This note re‐examines the economic model of optimal international borrowing for LDCs proposed by Gemmell [1988]. Pursuing a rigorous methodology, this note derives alternative optimal debt functions, and discusses the sufficient conditions under which the optimal debt level is positive. Interesting implications of the analysis in this note, inter alia, rest in identifying the appropriate role of social inter‐temporal consumption preferences in a more realistic setting, and in perceiving, unambiguously, the tendency of ‘overborrowing’ by LDCs that only service their debts over long periods.