The Politics of Welfare State Retrenchment
A Literature Review
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11636148 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Peter Starke (0000-0002-0837-7553, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 104-120 |
| Publication date | 2006-01-12 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Policy and Administration (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0144-5596 • E-ISSN: 1467-9515 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9515.2006.00479.x |
| OpenAlex | W2066662503 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 209 |
| References cited | 73 |
Welfare state retrenchment is widely seen as a highly unpopular endeavour and, therefore, as politically difficult to pursue. This assumption has underpinned most of the political science research on this issue, notably Paul Pierson's seminal contributions about the ‘new politics of the welfare state’. Yet, the question remains why and under what circumstances cutbacks take place in highly developed welfare states despite these formidable political obstacles. This article reviews the literature on the politics of retrenchment, namely on the impact of socio‐economic problem pressure, political parties, political institutions, welfare state structures and ideas. Most authors agree that socio‐economic problems – particularly domestic problems – contribute to an atmosphere of ‘permanent austerity’ which inspires cutbacks. Moreover, according to most scholars, the extent of retrenchment possible depends on the specific institutional configuration of a political system and the path dependence of existing welfare state structures. The debate on the relevance of political parties and ideas, by contrast, is still far from settled. Further unresolved issues include the nature of the dependent variable in retrenchment studies. Also, the exact motives for cutbacks are theoretically still little understood, as are the political mechanisms through which they are realized. I argue that, because of the nature of these persisting issues, the pluralistic dialogue between different methods and approaches – as well as their combination – remains the most promising way forward in the study of welfare state politics
Economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Retrenchment · State (computer science · Welfare · Welfare state · Computer Science · European Union Policy and Governance · Law · Political Systems and Governance · Public Administration · Social Policy and Reform Studies
State-led financialization of social care
Repoliticization of the Welfare State
The Institutions of Programmatic Action
Welfare Retrenchment
Welfare State
Social Movements in 1980s Sweden
Social services, welfare states and places
Opening Up Opportunities and Risks? Retrenchment, Activation and Targeting as Main Trends of Recent Welfare State Reforms Across Europe
Beyond Social Investment. Which Concepts and Values for Social Policy-making in Europe?
Mapping At-Risk-of-Poverty Rates, Household Employment, and Social Spending
Drifting into Labour Market Insecurity? Labour Market Reforms in Europe after 2010
Biting the Hand that Feeds
Social Assistance and Minimum Income Benefits
Globalisation, European Integration and Social Protection – Patterns of Change or Continuity?
Public service employment relations in an era of austerity
Social investment
Who Benefits from Investment Policies? The Case of Family Activation in European Countries
Fiscal Redistribution in Comparative Perspective
The Great Recession and social welfare spending in the American States
Networking, lobbying and bargaining for pensions
Unequal Europe
The Electoral Consequences of Third Way Welfare State Reforms
Reconciling Work and Poverty Reduction
Social Redistribution, Poverty, and the Adequacy of Social Protection
Explaining Institutional Change
Politikwandel und seine Messung in der vergleichenden Staatstätigkeitsforschung
Identifying the Skeleton of the Social Investment State
The Comparative Politics of Education
The Redistributive Capacity of Services in the European Union
Les réformes et l’État et la transformation des services publics
Gouverner (par) les finances publiques
The Critique of Commodification
Anti-corruption Reforms and Retrenchment in International Sport Federations
Patient mobility within national borders. Drivers and politics of cross-border healthcare agreements in the Spanish decentralized system
Blame and Punishment? The Electoral Politics of Extreme Austerity in Greece
Post-capitalistic politics in the making
Face au retrait de l’État de la production de l’ordre urbain
From public to private expertise? Understanding the changes in expertise provision in French smaller cities’ urban policies
Welfare states under the weather
Blame and Punishment? The Electoral Politics of Extreme Austerity in Greece
Uma moldura conceitual para a análise comparativa de mudanças em políticas públicas
Les politiques du retrait territorial de l’État
Produire un retrait de l’État acceptable
A Weberian Study of Small, Prosperous Democracies
Wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Wandel, Lohnersatzraten und das Problem der Validität – Ein kritischer Einwurf
How and why industrial relations influence party effect upon welfare state retrenchment. A comparison of the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and France
Der lange Schatten der Finanzkrise
Die Kommunikation wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Reformen in vergleichender Perspektive
Warum und wie Industrielle Beziehungen den Parteieneffekt auf wohlfahrtsstaatliche Retrenchmentpolitik beeinflussen. Ein Vergleich zwischen den Niederlanden, Dänemark, Deutschland und Frankreich
Social welfare expansion and political support during economic slowdown
Not my debt
Reforming Long‐Term Care Provision and Work in Post‐Pandemic Times
Austerity and identity formation
The European Welfare State
Immigration and the Categorical Welfare State in Israel
Rethinking the ‘open functional’ approach
Towards an Open Functional Approach to Welfare State Change
Welfare lobby groups responding to globalization
Cutback management literature in the 1970s and 1980s
Institutionalizing suspicion
Do austerity cuts spare police budgets? Welfare‐to‐carceral realignment during fiscal crises
Welfare systems without economic growth
Radical Reform Or Piecemeal Adjustments? The Case of Finnish Family Policy Reforms
Whose Need Matters
From Stability to Vulnerability
Contingent Relations
After the refugee crisis
Childcare Issues and the Pandemic
Contemporary European Welfare State Transformations and the Risk of Erosion of Social Rights
Tax Constraints, Social Policy Preferences, and Support for Redistribution
The shrinking state? Understanding the assault on the public sector
Austerity in America
The rise of market‐based “choice” programs
The Politics of Solidarity and the Changing Boundaries of the Welfare State
Poursuivre malgré la crise
Home-ownership and asset-based welfare
The Growth Machine across the United States
When do salient social issues affect the generosity of welfare programmes
Ideas and Policy Response to the Covid-19 Crisis
Understanding Disability Policy Development
Did the conservative resurgence matter? A counterfactual replication of Pierson’s analysis on Reagan and Thatcher’s welfare state retrenchments
Political parties’ welfare image, electoral punishment and welfare state retrenchment
Honeymoon in the crisis
Political parties as drivers of post-crisis social spending in liberal welfare states
Increasing school autonomy in Western Europe
When metaphors become cognitive locks
Procedural tools and pension reform in the long run
Is Breaking Up Still Hard to Do? – Policy Retrenchment and Housing Policy Change in a Path Dependent Context
Asset-based Welfare and Social Investment
Minimum income protection and EU coordination
The Case of the Guarantee Pension Reform
The Matching Problem within Comparative Welfare State Research
The Direction and Scope of Social Policy Change
Unpopular Policies and the Imperative of Justification
A Conceptual Framework for the Comparative Analysis of Policy Change
The handicap for enhanced solidarity across advanced economies
The forgotten half
The impact of the European Youth Guarantee on active labour market policies
Sickness and disability policies
Retrenching or renovating the Australian welfare state
Policy, Office, or Votes?
Averting the old age crisis
Prospect Theory
Veto Players
Politics in Time
Negotiated Policy Change
Partisan Competition and Welfare State Retrenchment
Round Up the Usual Suspects!
Partisan Politics in the Global Economy
Post‐Industrial Pressures on the Mature Welfare States
Global Capital, Political Institutions, and Policy Change in Developed Welfare States
Social Pacts Revisited
Dismantling the Welfare State?
What We Know About the Development of Social Policy
Would you like to shrink the welfare state? A survey of European citizens
The Future of the Welfare State
Jenseits der Expansion? Sozialpolitik in westlichen Demokratien 1975–1995
Development and Crisis of the Welfare State
The New Politics of the Welfare State
The Comparative Political Economy of Pension Reform
Political Institutions, Veto Points, and the Process of Welfare State Adaptation
New Risks, New Welfare
The End of Class Politics?
Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies
The Dynamics of Welfare State Expansion
Federalism and the Welfare State
Coping With Permanent Austerity Welfare State Restructuring in Affluent Democracies
Power Resource Theory and the Welfare State
Social Capitalism
When parties matter
The Dependent Variable Problem within the Study of Welfare State Retrenchment
How, Where and When does Discourse Matter in Small States' Welfare State Adjustment
Sustaining State Welfare in Hard Times
Is expenditure enough? On the nature of the dependent variable in comparative public policy analysis
When Is a Change Big Enough to Be a System Shift? Small System‐shifting Changes in German and Finnish Pension Policies
Ideas and Social Policy
Commitment to Welfare
Applications of Prospect Theory to Political Science
Globalization and the Future of Social Protection
Why Do More Open Economies Have Bigger Governments
Vice into Virtue? Progressive Politics and Welfare Reform in Continental Europe
The politics of the new social policies
Striking deals
Globalization, European integration and the discursive construction of economic imperatives
Motives, means and opportunities
Mechanisms in the Analysis of Social Macro-Phenomena
Welfare-State Retrenchment Revisited
The Social Construction of an Imperative
The New Politics of the Welfare State
Dismantling the Social Democratic Welfare Model? Has the Swedish Welfare State Lost Its Defining Characteristics
Social expenditure in the 1990s
The Politics of Blame Avoidance
Globalization and the welfare state
Political parties, institutions, and the dynamics of social expenditure in times of austerity
The viability of advanced welfare states in the international economy
Partisan politics and welfare adjustment
Globalization and Welfare Compensation
Beyond Left and Right
Panel data analysis in comparative politics
How reliable is pooled analysis in political economy? The globalization‐welfare state nexus revisited
Globalization, government spending and taxation in the OECD
Prospect Theory and Political Science
Political Partisanship and Welfare State Reform in Advanced Industrial Societies
Promises and Pitfalls of Veto Player Analysis
The Politics of Welfare State Reform
Breaking the Path of Institutional Development? Alternatives to the New Determinism
The Politics of Justification
Still There But For How Long? The Counter-Intuitiveness of the Universal Welfare Model and the Development of the Universal Welfare State in Denmark
New Politics and Class Politics in the Context of Austerity and Globalization
Privatizing Risk without Privatizing the Welfare State
States and Social Policies
Path dependence in historical sociology
| Unique citing works | 209 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 10,45 |
| Citation span | 2006 - 2026 (21) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 207 |