Klaus Armingeon - Böcker

This new study assesses the welfare state to ask key questions and draw new conclusions about its place in modern society.It shows how the welfare states that we have inherited from the early post-war years had one main objective: to protect the income of the male breadwinner. Today, however, massive social change, in particular the shift from industrial to post-industrial societies and economies, have resulted in new demands being put on welfare states. These demands originate from situations that are typical of the new family and labour market structures that have become widespread in western countries since the 1970s and 1980s, characterised by the clear prevalence of service employment and by the massive entry of women in the labour market.Against this background, this book: * presents a precise and clear definition of 'new social risks'. A concept being increasingly used in welfare state literature. * focuses on the groups that are mostly exposed to new social risks (women, the young, the low-skilled) in order to study their political behaviour. * assesses policymaking processes that can lead to successful adaptation. It covers key areas such as child care, care for elderly people, adapting pensions to atypical career patterns, active labour market policies, and policy making at the EU level. This book will be of great interest for all students and scholars of politics, sociology and the welfare state in particular.

This new study assesses the welfare state to ask key questions and draw new conclusions about its place in modern society.It shows how the welfare states that we have inherited from the early post-war years had one main objective: to protect the income of the male breadwinner. Today, however, massive social change, in particular the shift from industrial to post-industrial societies and economies, have resulted in new demands being put on welfare states. These demands originate from situations that are typical of the new family and labour market structures that have become widespread in western countries since the 1970s and 1980s, characterised by the clear prevalence of service employment and by the massive entry of women in the labour market.Against this background, this book: * presents a precise and clear definition of 'new social risks'. A concept being increasingly used in welfare state literature. * focuses on the groups that are mostly exposed to new social risks (women, the young, the low-skilled) in order to study their political behaviour. * assesses policymaking processes that can lead to successful adaptation. It covers key areas such as child care, care for elderly people, adapting pensions to atypical career patterns, active labour market policies, and policy making at the EU level. This book will be of great interest for all students and scholars of politics, sociology and the welfare state in particular.

The OECD includes the richest nations in the world. It issues recommendations on economic and social policies. Is its counsel on welfare state policies coherent? And is it followed by member states in Western Europe? These are the guiding questions of this book, which is a first to deal with such issues.The OECD and European Welfare States comprises 14 country studies considering OECD recommendations and their implementation in Western European welfare states, an analysis of the internal processes in the OECD, a theoretical introduction and a concluding comparative chapter. The overall results show a large degree of consistency in OECD analyses and recommendations, though little efficacy is revealed. The authors of this book have compiled a major contribution to the analysis of the impact of international organisations on national welfare states, widening the scope of traditional analyses of national welfare state development.This edited book will be of special interest to those researchers and graduate students in the fields of international business, welfare state policy and comparative politics. It will also appeal to policy makers concerned with the OECD or welfare state development.

Diese Arbeit ist die leicht überarbeitete Fassung meiner Heidelberger Habilita­ tionsschrift. In ihr geht es um die Regeln, die die Beziehungen zwischen staatli­ chen Stellen, Arbeitgebern und Gewerkschaften normieren und um die Be­ dingungen, unter denen eine Veränderung dieser Regeln stattfindet. Das empiri­ sche Material der Untersuchung stammt aus 21 Ländern und einem Zeitraum, der mit der erstmaligen Regelung kollektiver industrieller Arbeitsbeziehungen beginnt und 1990 endet. Die Studie hat ein doppeltes Ziel. In analytischer Hinsicht sollen für den Be­ reich der Arbeitsbeziehungen Voraussetzungen und Hindernisse von institutionel­ len Reformen in demokratischen und wirtschaftlich hochentwickelten kapitalisti­ schen Länder identifiziert werden. Bei der Behandlung dieses Themas wurde in früheren Analysen staatlicher Tätigkeiten häufig mit einfachen Linearitätsannah­ men gearbeitet: Je größer beispielsweise ein ökonomischer oder sozialer Problem­ druck sei oder je stärker die politische Linke oder Rechte sei, desto mehr von einer spezifischen staatlichen Tätigkeit sei zu erwarten. Zu Recht sind diese Annahmen kritisiert worden. Die Alternativen, die die Kritiker vorschlugen, überzeugen frei­ lich auch nicht jeden: Sie bedeuten entweder den Verzicht auf jegliche Generalisie­ rung und den Rückzug auf die Beschreibung und Analyse des historischen Falles in seiner Einmaligkeit oder den Aufbau hochabstrakter Theoriegebäude, die sich der empirischen Überprüfung fast gänzlich entziehen. Diese Arbeit hat sich für mich gelohnt, wenn es mir gelungen sein sollte, plausibel zu machen, daß es zwi­ schen diesen Extremen noch einen theoretisch und empirisch sinnvollen Mittelweg gibt. Die Voraussetzung zur Verwirklichung des analytischen Zieles istder Aufbau einer Sammlung qualitativer Daten zum Gegenstandsbereich.