In this ground-breaking, two-volume study of the adjustment of advanced welfare states to international economic pressures, leading scholars detail the wide variety of responses in twelve countries. Rejecting any notion of convergence to some kind of neo-liberal orthodoxy, they find that most countries have remained true to the basic features of their postwar model as they have liberalized. Moreover, within different welfare-state constellations, while some countries are still struggling to adjust, others have reached a new sustainable equilibrium. Volume I presents comparative analyses of the differences in countries' vulnerabilities and capabilities, the effectiveness of their policy responses, and the role of values and discourse in the politics of adjustment. Volume II presents in-depth analyses of the experiences of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom as well as
special studies on the participation of women in the labour market, early retirement, the liberalization of public services, and international tax competition.
1: Fritz W. Scharpf and Vivien A. Schmidt: Introduction 2: Martin Rhodes: Restructuring the British welfare state: Between domestic constraints and global imperatives 3: Herman Schwartz: Internationalization and two liberal welfare states: Australia and New Zealand 4: Giuliano Bonoli and Andre Mach: Switzerland: Adjustment politics within institutional constraints 5: Anton Hemerijck, Brigitte Unger, and Jelle Visser: How small countries egotiate change: Twenty-five years of policy adjustment in Austria, the netherlands, and Belgium 6: Philip Manow and Eric Seils: Adjusting badly: The German welfare state, structural change, and the open economy 7: Jonah D. Levy: France: Directing adjustment? 8: Maurizio Ferrera and Elisabetta Gualmini: Italy: Rescue from without? 9: Mats Benner and Torben Bundgaard Vad: Sweden and Denmark: Defending the Welfare State 10: Mary Daly: A Fine Balance: Women's labor market particilation in international comparison 11: Bernhard Ebbinghaus: Any way out of exit from work? Reversing the entrenched pathways of early retirement? 12: Adrienne Heritier and Susanne K. Schmidt: After liberalization: Pubic-interest services and employment itilities 13: Steffen Gangholf: Adjusting national tax policy to economic internationalization: Strategies and outcomes
Reviews for Welfare and Work in the Open Economy: Volume II: Diverse Responses to Common Challenges in Twelve Countries
These books are major benchmark studies of welfare states and the problems of adjustment, and provide lucid and valuable analyses of contemporary capitalism. West European Politics Much of the two books is taken up with charting in very rich and absorbing detail the precise nature of responses and adjustments. There are some truly excellent country studies. West European Politics
