Description: Welfare state reform occurs in all advanced capitalist democracies, but it does not occur in identical ways, to the same degree or with similar consequences. In Comparative Welfare State Politics, Kees van Kersbergen and Barbara Vis explain the political opportunities and constraints of welfare state reform by asking 'big' questions. Why did we need a welfare state in the first place? How did we get it? Why did we get different worlds of welfare and do we still have them? What does the welfare state actually do? Why do we need to reform the welfare state? Why is reform so difficult, but why does it nevertheless happen? Can and will the welfare state survive the Great Recession? This book informs the reader comprehensively about the welfare state, while contributing to the ongoing debate on the politics of welfare state reform.
Brief description: Barbara Vis is Professor of Political Decision-Making in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at VU University Amsterdam.
Review Quotes: "Comparative Welfare State Politics is a major contribution to the debate on welfare state reforms. It is a concise and competent textbook that gives unambiguous answers to big questions, based on empirical research and a masterful overview of the scientific debate. Van Kersbergen and Vis propose an immensely useful re-adjustment of the debate, emphasizing the functional pressures for social policy reform as a starting point for the interaction of ideas, interests, and institutions."- Dr. Klaus Armingeon, Professor of Comparative Politics and Director of the Institute of Political Science, University of Berne