Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 41 views

    Why Do Welfare States Persist - Clem Brooks, Jeff Manza

    Uploaded by

    iulia_dumitru
    1) The document discusses theories around why welfare states have persisted despite pressures for retrenchment. It argues that mass public opinion and citizen policy preferences have contributed to welfare state persistence in many developed democracies. 2) Power resource theory and path dependency theory posit that early social policy developments set countries on trajectories that are difficult to reverse. Citizen preferences are also a factor, as politicians have incentives to maintain popular social programs to avoid voter backlash. 3) Evidence suggests linkages between mass policy preferences and overall welfare spending in several countries. Relatively stable levels of public support for welfare states in many nations is expected to exert pressure towards inertia and persistence.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Why Do Welfare States Persist - Clem Brooks, Jeff Manza

    Uploaded by

    iulia_dumitru
    41 views2 pages
    1) The document discusses theories around why welfare states have persisted despite pressures for retrenchment. It argues that mass public opinion and citizen policy preferences have contributed to welfare state persistence in many developed democracies. 2) Power resource theory and path dependency theory posit that early social policy developments set countries on trajectories that are difficult to reverse. Citizen preferences are also a factor, as politicians have incentives to maintain popular social programs to avoid voter backlash. 3) Evidence suggests linkages between mass policy preferences and overall welfare spending in several countries. Relatively stable levels of public support for welfare states in many nations is expected to exert pressure towards inertia and persistence.

    Original Description:

    Este in intregime in engleza- articol legat de statele bunastarii, de Clem Brooks si Jeff Manza

    Original Title

    Why Do Welfare States Persist – Clem Brooks, Jeff Manza

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    1) The document discusses theories around why welfare states have persisted despite pressures for retrenchment. It argues that mass public opinion and citizen policy preferences have contributed to welfare state persistence in many developed democracies. 2) Power resource theory and path dependency theory posit that early social policy developments set countries on trajectories that are difficult to reverse. Citizen preferences are also a factor, as politicians have incentives to maintain popular social programs to avoid voter backlash. 3) Evidence suggests linkages between mass policy preferences and overall welfare spending in several countries. Relatively stable levels of public support for welfare states in many nations is expected to exert pressure towards inertia and persistence.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    41 views2 pages

    Why Do Welfare States Persist - Clem Brooks, Jeff Manza

    Uploaded by

    iulia_dumitru
    1) The document discusses theories around why welfare states have persisted despite pressures for retrenchment. It argues that mass public opinion and citizen policy preferences have contributed to welfare state persistence in many developed democracies. 2) Power resource theory and path dependency theory posit that early social policy developments set countries on trajectories that are difficult to reverse. Citizen preferences are also a factor, as politicians have incentives to maintain popular social programs to avoid voter backlash. 3) Evidence suggests linkages between mass policy preferences and overall welfare spending in several countries. Relatively stable levels of public support for welfare states in many nations is expected to exert pressure towards inertia and persistence.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    1) Why do Welfare States persist?

    Clem Brooks, Jeff Manza


    Building from recent welfare state theory, we consider the possibility that mass public opinion-
    citizens aggregate policy preferences- are a factor behind welfare state persistence. The distribution
    of policy preferences has contributed to the persistence tendencies in a number of welfare states.
    There is a linkage between mass opinion and social policy in cross-national perspective.
    Welfare states within many developed democracies now appear resilient in the face of dramatic
    shifts in their national settings. In contrast to early declarations of the seeming inevitability of
    retrenchment ( Brown 1988, Marklund 1988, Schwartz 1994), high levels of soxial services and cash
    benefits continue to define many West European polities.
    Economic and political pressures on mature welfare states contribute to slower rates of growth or
    cut-backs within specific policy domains (eg: Clayton and Pontusson 1998, Hicks 1999, Huber and
    Stephens 2001).
    Sweeping declarations of retrenchment provide a limited basis for understanding welfare state
    persistence in the contemporary historical era. Domain-specific cuts have at times been offset by
    stability in other policies (Esping Andersen 1996; Pierson 2001; Stephens, Huber, and Ray 1999)
    What are the causal mechanisms behind contemporary patterns of persistence? The question we
    consider in this paper is whether citizens attitude toward social policy accounts for persistence
    tendencies within contemporary welfare states. On many welfare states, the citizens opposition to
    cuts in social programs would be consequential.
    Theoretical perspectives on Welfare State Persistence
    Power Resources and Path Dependency
    A key proposition is that welfare state policies are a product of legacies of class and partisan
    influence. This hystorical patterning is said to create ideal-typical welfare regimes. (Esping-Andersen
    1990, 2000). Path dependency theories assume that early social policy developments set nations on
    distinct trajectories that, once adopted, are difficult to reverse. There are two causal mechanisms
    behind path dependency. One is policy feedback. Pierson (1996, 2001) hypothesizes that the old
    politics of welfare states involving class conflict have begun to be displaced. The contemporary
    stage of welfare state development reflects a new politics, where there are incentives for
    government officials to expand and maintain government benefits and services. Politicians nowadays
    receive greater benefits from credit-claiming initiatives than blame avoidance for spending
    cutbacks. (Pierson 1996)
    Why mass policy preferences?
    The Power Resources and Path Dependency theorems have a causal role for mass policy preferences
    as a mechanism behind persistence tendencies in welfare states. In the power resource argument,
    the persistence of generous welfare states is linked to robust preferences on the part of working and
    middle class citizens. In the path dependency thesis (Pierson 1996, 2001), interest groups operate in
    tandem with the policy preferences of voters exert pressure on politicians to maintain social
    programs. Government officials have incentives to incorporate policy preferences into policymaking
    so as to avoid voter sanctions in the form of electoral defeat or public protests. ( Erikson, MacKuen,
    and Stimson 2002, chapter 7).
    In the United States, there is evidence for linkages between mass opinion and spending output
    across various policy domains. (Erikson, MacKuen, and Stimson 2002).. There is also evidence for
    linkages between mass policy preferences and government spending within Canada (Petry 1999,
    Soroka and Wlezien 2005b), Germany and the United Kingdom.
    Measures of overall output
    Policy-specific provisions relating to pensions or unemployment benefits are informative, yet past
    debates over retrenchment have highlighted the importance of considering the overall policy output
    of welfare states. (Huber and Stephens 2001). It is the overall output and expenditure of welfare
    state systems that appear to be most clearly characterized by persistence tendencies. Overall welfare
    state spending relative to GDP has been found to predict patterns of inequality and poverty within
    democracies. (Brady 2001). Surveys were carried out, asking about respondents attitudes toward
    government responsibility for providing employment and reducing income inequality.
    Unemployment, the percentage of the aged population as well as womens labor force participation
    are sources of pressure on welfare states. (Huber and Stephens 2000). Mass policy preferences are
    endogenous with respect to aggregated welfare output. Welfare state development eventually
    affects policy preferences.

    Trends in Overall Welfare State Effort
    There is no universal pattern of retrenchment when it comes to the overall size of welfare states. It is
    well-known that mass support for welfare states in many countries shows considerable stability, or,
    in some cases, growing support in recent decades. (Andersen et al. 1999; Smith 1987; Svallfors 1997).
    Relatively stable temporal patterns in the level of policy preferences are expected to exert pressures
    towards inertia and persistence in welfare states.
    Within liberal democracies, the linkage between policy preferences and welfare output is weak.
    Within the European social snd Christian democracies, mass policy preferences appear of great
    significance, where levels of welfare state support have frequently been high and enduring.
    Mass policy preferences fit well with both power resources and path dependency theories, and they
    contribute to the institutionalization of social policy frameworks within specific national settings.
    Political officials have an important reason to maintain or extend entitlement programs: it is their
    enduring degree of popularity within many polities. Policy preferences of national populations are
    part of an explanation for the resiliency of welfare states.

    You might also like