The Handbook of West European Pension Politics

by Ellen M. Immergut, Karen M. Anderson, Isabelle Schulze

Overview

The Handbook of West European Pension Politics provides scholars, policy-makers and students with a complete overview of the political and policy issues involved in pension policy, as well as case studies of contemporary pension politics (1980 to present) in 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The handbook is suitable as a text for courses in comparative politics, European Studies, social policy, comparative public policy and public administration. Each chapter is written by an expert on pension politics and is presented in a standardized format with standardized tables and figures that describe: political institutions; government coalitions, parliamentary and electoral majorities; the party system; the pension system; proposed and enacted pension reforms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199562473
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/15/2009
Pages:	968
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.60(h) x 2.20(d)

About the Author

Ellen M. Immergut is Professor of Comparative Politics in the Department of Social Sciences at Humboldt University Berlin. She did her graduate work at Harvard University, was appointed as Assistant and Ford Career Development Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Visiting Professor at the Instituto Juan March in Madrid, and Professor of Political Theory at the University of Konstanz. She is author of the book Health Politics (Cambridge University Press, 1992), co-editor of a special issue of Governance on crises of governance in coordinated market economies, as well as various articles on the new institutionalism, institutional design and the politics of constitutional reform.

Karen M. Anderson is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Nijmegen University. She received her PhD in political science from the University of Washington. Her research focuses on the comparative political economy of the welfare state, particularly the role of unions and social democratic parties in welfare state restructuring processes. Her work has appeared in Comparative Political Studies, Zeitschrift für Sozialreform, Canadian Journal of Sociology, and the Journal of Public Policy. She is currently completing a book about the restructuring of the Swedish welfare state during the 1990s.

Isabelle Schulze is a researcher at the Mannheimer Zentrum für Europäische Sozialforschung (MZES) at the University of Mannheim for the project "Governance of Supplementary Pensions in Europe: The Varying Scope for Participatory and Social Rights". She is writing a dissertation at Humboldt University Berlin on the role of electoral threat in pension politics, and received her MA at the University of Konstanz on agricultural politics in Britain and Germany. She was awarded a dissertation fellowship from the Forschungsnetzwerk Alterssicherung of the Federation of German Pension Insurance Institutes (Verband Deutscher Rentenversicherungsträger ; now Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund).

Table of Contents

1. Editors Introduction: the Dynamics of Pension Politics, Ellen M. Immergut & Karen M. AndersonPart I. Single Veto Player Governments; No Veto Points2. United Kingdom: pension politics in an adversarial system, Isabelle Schulze & Michael Moran3. Greece: political competition in a majoritarian system, Polyxeni Triantafillou4. 4. France: the importance of the electoral cycle, Eugénia da Conceição-HeldtPart II. Multiple Veto Points5. Switzerland: the impact of direct democracy on a multipillar system, Giuliano Bonoli6. Finland: labor markets against politics, Olli Kangas7. Belgium: linguistic veto players and pension reform, Karen M. Anderson, Sannekke Kuipers, Isabelle Schulze & Wendy van den NoulandPart III. Many Partisan Veto Players8. Sweden: after social democratic hegemony, Karen M. Anderson & Ellen M. Immergut9. Italy: a narrow gate for path-shift, Maurizio Ferrera & Matteo Jessoula10. Denmark: a 'World Bank' pension system, Christoffer Green-PedersenPart IV. Moderate Veto Points and Veto Players11. Spain: between majority rule and incrementalism, Elisa Chuliá12. Austria: From electoral cartels to competitive coalition-building, Isabelle Schulze and Martin Schludi13. Portugal: in search of a stable framework, Elisa Chuliá & María Asensio14. Germany: beyond policy gridlock, Isabelle Schulze & Sven JochemPart V. Closed Veto Points, Moderate Veto Players, Unusual Electoral Systems15. The Netherlands: political competition in proportional system, Karen M. Anderson16. Ireland: pensioning the Celtic tiger, Isabelle Schulze & Michael Moran17. Luxembourg: an electoral system with panache, Isabelle Schulze18. Appendix: pension systems in western europe

Editorial Reviews

"Represents a unique source of comparable data and a promising step beyond the traditional contributions on the 'stickiness' of pension programmes."—Political Studies Review

From the Publisher