The End of the Welfare State?: Responses to State Retrenchment

by Stefan Svallfors (Editor), Peter Taylor-Gooby (Editor)

Overview

Throughout the world, politicians from all the main parties are cutting back on state welfare provision, encouraging people to use the private sector instead and developing increasingly stringent techniques for the surveillance of the poor. Almost all experts agree that we are likely to see further constraints on state welfare in the 21st Century.

Gathering together the findings from up-to-date attitude surveys in Europe East and West, the US and Australasia, this revealing book shows that, contrary to the claims of many experts and policy-makers, the welfare state is still highly popular with the citizens of most countries. This evidence will add to controversy in an area of fundamental importance to public policy and to current social science debate.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415463263
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/01/2007
Series:	Studies in European Sociology
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Stefan Svallfors is lecturer of sociology, Umeå University, Sweden.
/Peter Taylor-Gooby is professor of social policy at the University of Kent.

Table of Contents

1. 'Hollowing Out' Versus the New Interventionism: Public Attitudes and Welfare FuturesPeter Taylor-Gooby2. Changing Labour Markets, New Social Divisions and Welfare State Support: Denmark in the 1990s.Joergen Goul Andersen3. The Middle Class and Welfare State Retrenchment: Attitudes to Swedish Welfare PoliciesStefan Svallfors4. Who Wants to Preserve the Scandinavian Service State? Attitudes to Welfare Services Among Citizens and Local Government Elities in Finland 1992-96.Helena Blomberg and Christian Kroll5. Welfare State Opinions Among Citizens, MP-Candidates and Elites: Evidence from FinlandPauli Forma6. Progressive Taxation Farewell? Attitudes to Income Redistribution and Taxation in Sweden, Great Britain, and the United StatesJonas Edlund7. Within and Without: Labour Force Status and Political Views in Four Welfare StatesGeorge Matheson and Michael Wearing8. Need, Citizenship or Merit: Public Opinion on Pension Policy in Australia, Finland and PolandPauli Forma & Olli Kangas9. Egalitarianism, Perception of Conflicts, and Support for Transformation in PolandKrzysztof Zagorski10. And What if the State Fades Away? The Civilising Process and the StateZsuzsa Ferge