Political Institutions

2021 ◽  
pp. 312-328
Author(s):  
Ellen M. Immergut
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Veto Players ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Consensus Democracy ◽  
Welfare State Development ◽  
Veto Points ◽  
The Impact

This chapter surveys theories and empirical evidence about the impact of state structures and political institutions on welfare state structures and outcomes. It shows that the political-institutional analysis of welfare states has shifted over time from an interest in static structures to a much more dynamic analysis of the interplay amongst preferences, structures, ideas, and institutions. It reviews different approaches to the study of political institutions, including majoritarian versus consensus democracy, veto points, and veto players. The impact of veto points on welfare state development and change, as well as the links between electoral systems and electoral dynamics on social policy outcomes, are explained and discussed. The chapter concludes with a review of the impact of past policies on welfare state politics and outcomes.

4. The Domestic Sources of Foreign Economic Policies

2020 ◽  
pp. 76-108
Author(s):  
Michael J. Hiscox
Keyword(s):  
Exchange Rates ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
Competing Demands ◽  
Domestic Sources ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines the domestic sources of foreign economic policies. Different people in every society typically have different views about what their government should do when it comes to setting the policies that regulate international trade, immigration, investment, and exchange rates. These competing demands must be reconciled in some way by the political institutions that govern policy making. To really understand the domestic origins of foreign economic policies, we need to perform two critical tasks: identify or map the policy preferences of different groups in the domestic economy; and specify how political institutions determine the way these preferences are aggregated or converted into actual government decisions. The first task requires some economic analysis, while the second requires some political analysis. These two analytical steps put together like this, combining both economic and political analysis in tandem, are generally referred to as the political economy approach to the study of policy outcomes. The chapter then considers the impact of domestic politics on bargaining over economic issues between governments at the international level.

The Impact of Collective and Competitive Veto Points on Public Expenditures in the Global Age

2004 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus M. L. Crepaz ◽  
Ann W. Moser
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Public Expenditures ◽  
Domestic Political Institutions ◽  
Global Age ◽  
Social Transfers ◽  
Veto Points ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

This study examines the determinants of public expenditures in advanced market economies by simultaneously assessing the impact of domestic political institutions and globalization. A distinction is made between collective veto points and competitive veto points, demonstrating that not all veto points have restrictive effects. It is shown that public expenditures are significantly and positively affected by collective veto points, whereas the oppositeis true for competitive veto points thereby indicating that not all veto points are created equal. In addition to veto points, the effects of globalization are also assessed revealing that globalization is exerting little reform pressures on the welfare state with strong evidence indicating that more globalization buoys public expenditures. Current disbursements and social transfers are both positively influenced by globalization. These findings suggest that domestic political institutions continue to shape policy trajectories in this purported global age.

Healthcare

2019 ◽  
pp. 242-265
Author(s):  
Antonia Maioni ◽  
Theodore R. Marmor
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
National Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
State Expansion ◽  
Policy Evolution ◽  
Welfare State Development ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
The U.S

The differences and similarities in health policy between the United States (U.S.) and Canada provide useful examples of how political institutions can shape democratic governance. These institutions have shaped both the obstacles to rapid welfare state expansion and the nature of the political reform coalitions that have been able to break through those obstacles. This chapter explores contending explanations of welfare state development, and then develops an institutional approach with which to parse though crucial differences between the U.S. and Canadian welfare states, and policy evolution in their healthcare systems. The chapter focuses on the role that political institutions have played in influencing national policy choices and in explaining policy differences between the U.S. and Canada. This comparison also bridges institutionalist theories with a more nuanced understanding of the way in which institutional arrangements interact with parties, policies, and welfare state outcomes.

Warfare and Welfare

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Western World ◽  
Social Spending ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
State Development ◽  
Welfare State Development ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Impact

This book is concerned with the nexus between warfare and welfare. The relationship between war and welfare states is contested. While some scholars consider war a pacemaker of the welfare state, others have emphasized a sharp trade-off between ‘guns and butter’ and highlighted the negative impacts of war on social protection. However, many of these findings only focus on social spending or are based on studies of individual national cases. From a comparative and interdisciplinary perspective, this book addresses the question of whether and how both world wars have influenced the development of advanced welfare states. Distinguishing between three different phases (war preparation, wartime mobilization, and the post-war period), the volume provides the first systematic comparative analysis of the impact of war on welfare state development in the Western world. The chapters, written by leading scholars in this field, examine both short-term responses to and long-term effects of war in fourteen belligerent, occupied, and neutral countries in the age of mass warfare stretching over the period from c.1860 to 1960. The findings clearly show that war is essential for understanding several aspects of welfare state development and welfare state patterns in advanced democracies.

Federalism, Direct Democracy, and Welfare State Development in Switzerland

1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Obinger
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
New Institutionalism ◽  
State Development ◽  
State Evolution ◽  
Welfare State Development ◽  
Social Expenditures ◽  
The Impact

Inspired by the New Institutionalism in political science, the article examines the impact of political institutions on welfare state development in Switzerland. This article suggests that the strength of federalism and direct democracy have proved to be stumbling blocks for the expansion of the Swiss welfare state. Direct democracy and federalism have not only geared the path of welfare state evolution in a more liberal direction, but have also dampened social expenditures.

scholarly journals Global social policy: an application of welfare state theory

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Holden
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
State Theory ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Transnational Actors ◽  
National Welfare ◽  
Welfare State Development

AbstractGlobal social policy (GSP) takes different forms from those of national welfare states, since it depends on the activities of an array of international organisations and transnational actors. Three broad theoretical approaches have dominated the literature on national welfare state development: those focused on processes of economic development, industrialisation and urbanisation; those focused on class struggle and political mobilisation; and those focused on the effects of political institutions. This article applies each of these broad theoretical approaches to the development of GSP in order to illuminate the nature of GSP, its likely future development, and the constraints upon such development. It is concluded that the dominant forms taken by GSP will continue to be piecemeal, minimalist and essentially neoliberal for as long as an effective global political movement in favour of a more extensive GSP is absent.

The Politics of Welfare in Turkey

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erdem Yörük
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

This chapter examines the political dynamics that have shaped the transformation of the Turkish welfare system since the 1960s. Over the years, income-based social assistance policies have supplanted employment-based social security policies, while the welfare state has significantly expanded. To explain why and how the Turkish welfare state has expanded during neoliberalism and why social policies have shifted from social security to social assistance, the chapter focuses on the rivalries between mainstream parties and the impact of grassroots politics, as well as the political mechanisms that mediate and transform structural pressures into policies. The chapter illustrates that political efforts to contain the political radicalization of the informal proletariat and to mobilize its electoral support have driven the expansion of social assistance policies during the post-1980 neoliberal period. State authorities now see the informal proletariat as a more significant political threat and source of support than the formal proletariat whose dynamism drove the expansion of the welfare state during the pre-1980 developmentalist period. The chapter provides a historical analysis of the interaction between parliamentary processes and social movements in order to account for the transformation of welfare provision in Turkey. It concludes by locating Turkey in a larger context, in which other emerging markets develop similar welfare states as a response to similar political exigencies.

scholarly journals War and Welfare States Before and After 1945

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Obinger ◽  
Klaus Petersen ◽  
Carina Schmitt ◽  
Peter Starke
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Social Expenditure ◽  
State Development ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Welfare State Development ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact

The conclusion reports major findings and discusses possible cross-country patterns. It shows that war’s impact on welfare state development can be differentiated into several distinct conclusions, each highlighting specific effects or causal mechanisms. Next, the case study evidence of the long-term effects of war is confirmed with quantitative data. For a sample of eighteen countries (thirteen of which are presented in this volume) war is shown to contribute to a better understanding of several of the phenomena lying at the heart of comparative welfare state research (i.e. social expenditure, benefit generosity, the public–private mix in provision, and the timing of legislation). The impact on outcomes such as income inequality is briefly discussed, along with the impact of the Cold War on welfare state development. Due to changes in warfare and the size of the existing welfare state, the effect of war on welfare state-building has all but disappeared today.

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