Showing papers on "Retrenchment published in 2004"

Privatizing Risk without Privatizing the Welfare State: The Hidden Politics of Social Policy Retrenchment in the United States

Abstract: Over the last decade, students of the welfare state have produced an impressive body of research on retrenchment, the dominant thrust of which is that remarkably few welfare states have experienced fundamental shifts. This article questions this now-conventional wisdom by reconsidering the post-1970s trajectory of the American welfare state, long considered the quintessential case of social policy stability. I demonstrate that although most programs have indeed resisted retrenchment, U.S. social policy has also offered increasingly incomplete risk protection in an era of dramatic social change. Although some of this disjuncture is inadvertent—an unintended consequence of the very political stickiness that has stymied retrenchment—I argue that the declining scope of risk protection also reflects deliberate and theoretically explicable strategies of reform adopted by welfare state opponents in the face of popular and change-resistant policies, a finding that has significant implications for the study of institutional change more broadly.

Political Partisanship and Welfare State Reform in Advanced Industrial Societies

Abstract: In this article we evaluate two claims made in recent studies of the welfare states of advanced industrial societies: first, that welfare states have remained quite resilient in the face of demands for retrenchment; and second, that partisan politics have ceased to play a decisive role in their evolution. Addressing the first claim, we present analysis from a new data set on unemployment insurance and sickness benefit replacement rates for 18 countries for the years 1975‐99. We find considerably more evidence of welfare retrenchment during the last two decades than do recent cross-national studies. Second, we examine the “end of partisanship” claim by estimating the effects of government partisanship on changes in income replacement rates in sickness and unemployment programs. Our results suggest that, contrary to claims that partisanship has little impact on welfare state commitments, traditional partisanship continues to have a considerable effect on welfare state entitlements in the era of retrenchment.

Does Foreign Aid Promote the Expansion of Government

Abstract: Building on the literature on public finance, I seek to advance our understanding of variations in government size by exploring the impact of official development assistance on fiscal policy. I hypothesize that foreign aid operates in accordance with the “flypaper effect,” systematically generating incentives and opportunities for the expansion of government spending. Results from a time-series cross-sectional regression analysis of growth in government spending over the 1970–99 time period are consistent with the hypothesis. For middle- and lower-income nations, aid represents an important determinant of government expansion. Looking at the tax and revenue side of the equation, however, reveals a more perverse pattern of response: aid promotes not only increased spending but also reduced revenue generation. The results have important implications from both a theoretical and policy perspective. Inter alia they point to the potentially self-defeating nature of efforts to promote market-oriented programs of state retrenchment via development assistance as well as to the importance of incorporating international transfers into future research on government spending.

The Dependent Variable Problem within the Study of Welfare State Retrenchment: Defining the Problem and Looking for Solutions

Abstract: Since the publication of Pierson's seminal work, a scholarly debate about welfare state retrenchment has emerged. One of the debated issues has been the “dependent variable problem”: what is welfare state retrenchment and how can it be measured. In particular the pros and cons of different types of data have been discussed. The argument of this article is that the “dependent variable problem” is a problem of theoretical conceptualization rather than a problem of data. It is crucial to be aware that different theoretical perspectives on retrenchment should lead to different conceptualizations of retrenchment. Furthermore, different conceptualizations lead to different evaluations of the same changes in welfare schemes, just as the question of which data to use depends very much on the theoretical conceptualization of retrenchment.

Review Article: Dismantling the Health Care State? Political Institutions, Public Policies and the Comparative Politics of Health Reform

Abstract: This article examines the recent pattern and progress of health care reform in affluent democracies, focusing in particular on Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. Its main contention is that efforts to reform health care in advanced industrial states have been marked by a paradoxical pattern of ‘reform without change and change without reform’, in which large-scale structural reforms have had surprisingly modest effects yet major ground-level shifts have, nonetheless, frequently occurred as a result of decentralized adjustments to cost control. The main task of the article is to investigate the reasons for and effects of this puzzling pattern by plumbing the largely unexplored theoretical territory between comparative health policy analysis and cross-national research on the welfare state. Along the way, the article develops a simple model of the politics of reform that helps explain cross-national variation in legislative and policy outcomes – particularly outcomes that occur through decentralized processes of internal policy ‘conversion’ and policy ‘drift’, rather than through formal legislative reform. It also takes up a number of other intriguing issues raised by recent trends: why, for example, market reforms are clustered in centralized political and medical frameworks; why these reforms have generally enhanced state authority rather than market autonomy; why, despite fragmentation, decentralized political and medical systems shifted towards an expanded government role; and why significant retrenchment of the public-private structure of health benefits occurred in the United States.

Europe and Islam: Crescent waxing, cultures clashing

Abstract: If Europe and its Muslim communities fail to reach an accommodation, increased social strife, national retrenchment, and potentially significant civil conflict are likely to overwhelm the vision of a continent that is whole, free, and united.

Trends in Infrastructure in Latin America, 1980-2001

Abstract: There is widespread concern across Latin America that the provision of infrastructure services has suffered as a consequence of the retrenchment of the public sector and the insufficient response of the private sector to the opening up of infrastructure industries to private participation in most countries. Calderon and Serven document the recent trends in infrastructure stocks and infrastructure investment in major Latin American economies. Using an updated dataset constructed for this task, the authors describe the evolution of the quantity and quality of infrastructure assets - power, transport, and telecommunications - as well as the investment expenditures of the public and private sectors. They find that Latin America lags behind the international norm in terms of infrastructure quantity and quality, and there is little evidence that the gap may be closing - except in the telecommunications sector. Furthermore, overall infrastructure investment has fallen, as a combined result of the retrenchment of public investment and the limited response of the private sector, which has been mostly confined to the telecommunications industry. However, there is considerable disparity across countries. On the whole the data show that the countries most successful in attracting large volumes of private investment (Bolivia, Chile, and Colombia) are precisely those where public investment has remained high. This paper - a joint product of the Finance, Private Sector, and Infrastructure Department, and the Office of the Chief Economist, Latin America and the Caribbean Region - is part of a larger effort in the region to assess the effects of infrastructure development.

A ‘3Rs’ Strategy for Public Service Turnaround: Retrenchment, Repositioning and Reorganization

Abstract: Problems of public service ‘failure’ are high on the political agenda in the UK, and many national and local organizations are searching for effective turnaround strategies. Although little research on turnaround in the public sector has been undertaken, there is a substantial number of studies of decline and recovery in private firms. Evidence from these studies suggests that turnaround is more likely in companies that pursue retrenchment, repositioning and reorganization. The relevance of this ‘3Rs’ strategy to the public sector is analysed, and the potential consequences for public service improvement are evaluated. This article will help managers to think more clearly about turnaround strategies that could work in their organizations.

From corporatism to partisan politics : social policy making under strain in Switzerland

Abstract: The literature on neo-corporatist agreements in social and labor market policy in the 1990s points to a decline of concertation in European countries with a long-standing tradition of corporatist negotiation. This article identifies a similar trend in Switzerland and argues that three destabilizing factors account for it: 1) retrenchment pressure and ideological polarization prevent compromises; 2) the emergence of new social demands and interests challenges the homogeneity and legitimacy of peak organizations and thus their bargaining power; 3) increasing media coverage tends to open up the traditionally confidential and selective sphere of corporatist negotiation and weakens the social partners’ ability to reach agreements. The impact of these factors on neo-corporatist bargaining is tested in Switzerland, a case where corporatist negotiations used to be particularly decisive in social policy making. Empirical evidence comes from a cross-time comparison of two major social policies: Unemployment insurance and pension reforms in the 1970s and in the 1990s. In the last decade, the main locus of decision-making shifted from the sphere of interest groups to partisan politics. In parliament, the political parties were able to draft bills enjoying wide acceptance thanks to compensations offered to groups particularly vulnerable to new social risks.

Germany : Beyond the Stable State

Abstract: 1. From Stability to Stagnation: Germany at the beginning of the Twenty-First Century Part 1: National Unification and European Integration 2. German Unification and 'Model Germany': An adventure in institutional conservatism 3. Germany and European Integration: A shifting of tectonic plates Part 2: Labour Markets, Life Styles and Political Preferences 4. New Ways of Life or Old Rigidities?: Changes in social structure and life courses and their political impact 5. The Crumbling Pillars of Social Partnership 6. Political-Economic Context and Partisan Strategies in the German Federal Elections, 1990-2002 7. The Changing Role of Political Protest Movements Part 3: Reorganisation of State and Political Economy 8. Corporate Governance and the Disintegration of Organised Capitalism in the 1990s 9. The State of the Welfare State: German social policy between macroeconomic retrenchment and microeconomic recalibration 10. The Politics of Citizenship in the New Republic

The Individualised Worker, the Gender Participatory and the Gender Equity Models in Sweden

Abstract: Within the European Union (EU) policy framework, individualisation is cast in terms of self-sufficiency and independence, and coupled to the market activation of all individuals and groups. How will this model be translated into European societies with different histories, policy environments and political actors? I analyse how an individualised system of benefits emerged in Sweden and was anchored in the broader social policy model and discourse of participation parity. Using the Swedish example, I map out the differences between individualisation, participation parity and gender equity, each representing models with different policy goals and outcomes. In the final section of the article, I focus on retrenchment and restructuring in the Swedish welfare state and its impact on the gender participatory model.

Shared governance in the community college

Abstract: This study examined shared governance in public, unionized community colleges and creates a national inventory of areas in which faculty participate in governance according to the language of collective-bargaining agreements. The findings suggest that community college faculty are engaged in shared governance in both the traditional academic areas such as faculty evaluation, curriculum, sabbatical, and tenure recommendations, and in the nontraditional areas such as budget and retrenchment decisions. Document analysis of 238 contracts representing 301 community colleges in 22 states was used to determine faculty participation in institutional governance. The results are intended to increase the understanding of shared governance in the community college.

An Exploratory Study of Company Turnaround in Australia and Singapore Following the Asia Crisis

Abstract: There has been little research into company turnaround practices in Asia. This paper investigates the role of retrenchment, replacement of chairman or chief executive and ownership change in the turnaround process, using a sample of 60 listed companies in Australia and Singapore. Conclusions are drawn that overall, transparency of the regulatory environment and other governance issues are a stronger influence on turnaround practices than are cultural issues. This may make Singapore, which has transparency and governance risk indicators at similar low levels to Australia, a unique business environment in Asia.

Challenging the Market: The Struggle to Regulate Work and Income

Abstract: For two decades economic and social policy in most of the world has been guided by the notion that economies function best when they are fully exposed to competitive market forces. In labour market policy, this approach is reflected in the widespread emphasis on "flexibility" - a euphemism for the retrenchment of income support and social security, the relaxation of labour market regulations, and the enhanced power of private actors to determine the terms of the employment relationship. These strategies have had marked effects on labour market outcomes, leading to greater vulnerability and polarization - and not always in ways that enhance worker-centred flexibility. The authors offer a more balanced analysis of the functioning and effects of labour market regulation and deregulation. By questioning the underpinnings of the "flexibility" paradigm, and revealing its often damaging impacts (on different countries, sectors, and constituencies), they challenge the conclusion that unregulated market forces produce optimal labour market outcomes. The authors conclude with several suggestions for how labour policy could be reformulated to promote both efficiency and equity.

Changing Family Policy in Sweden and Finland during the 1990s

Abstract: The aim of the article is to analyse changes in family policy programmes in Sweden and Finland during the turbulent years of the 1990s. The results suggest that in spite of cutbacks some features of the ideal-typical model of Nordic family policy became more prominent towards the end of the 1990s. For example, the importance of universalism was strengthened by such measures as the discontinuation of several forms of tax benefits for families with children in Sweden, and especially in Finland. The subjective right to day care was extended in both countries to cover all children of preschool age. Because of cutbacks, however, policies aimed at promoting horizontal and vertical distribution suffered. There was hardly any change in pronatalism. Compared with the 1970s and 1980s, the 1990s were indeed a period of retrenchment. However, this did not mean profound structural change. In the case of family policy, the early fears concerning the demise of the Nordic model proved false.

The Role of the Press in a Democracy: Heterodox Economics and the Propaganda Model

Abstract: The central thesis of this paper is that there is need to reinstitute the public purpose requirement for broadcast licensing. On that path, this paper develops an instrumentalist concept of democracy and from there expands to evaluate the ideological function of the press. With a conceptualization of democracy and the press's role established, this paper addresses what is interfering with the news media's ability to inform and educate the citizenry and the consequences of this corruption of media democracy. Recent deregulation and concentration of ownership of media, and controversies concerning the reporting of the war in Iraq have cast doubt on the independence of the press and the vitality and viability of American democracy. In this light, Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky's propaganda model (1988) deserves further consideration. It also is important to examine Karl Polanyi's protective response to the media democracy crisis: the citizenry's dramatic attempts to change the trajectory of news away from corporate serfdom to a renewed sense of public purpose. In addition, this paper contends that the retrenchment of the public interest standard makes it necessary to reestablish that standard based on a democracy criterion as a requirement for continued free use of the broadcast spectrum.

Institutional Development of Sickness Cash‐benefit Programmes in 18 OECD Countries

Abstract: This article traces past and present trends in the institutional development of sickness daily allowance schemes in eighteen OECD countries. We are interested whether there still are—or if there ever have been—distinctive models in sickness benefits. The historical part of the study inspects the development of coverage and generosity benefits. Thereafter the extent to which sickness benefits have been targets for retrenchment will be analysed. The study shows that up until 1985 the Nordic programmes guaranteed better benefits than corporatist schemes, but the situation has since changed, and the Nordic countries do not any longer provide higher compensations. In this respect, these two groups of countries have clearly converged and simultaneously their distance from the countries with basic security or targeted schemes has increased. When it comes to coverage, the Scandinavian schemes have to a great extent preserved their universality, whereas the other groups of countries have lost a bit in their coverage. Thus, in this dimension at least, we can still depict a clear Scandinavian pattern. However, there are indications of convergence towards the corporatist or labour market-based model.

Public Sector Bargaining : From Retrenchment to Consolidation

Abstract: There is general agreement that public sector bargaining has evolved through three stages: the expansionary years (mid-1960s to1982), the restraint years (1982-1990) and the retrenchment years (1990s). This paper argues that public sector collective bargaining entered a new stage of development around 1998. The post-retrenchment period or what is referred to as the consolidation stage was marked by economic expansion, the restoration of fiscal stability among the senior levels of government and increases in public employment. Under these conditions, governments and public sector employers sought to consolidate the gains they achieved during the retrenchment years through legislation and hard bargaining. Public sector unions attempted to improve their position by increasing membership and negotiating catch-up wage settlements. Based on a review of selected collective bargaining indicators, employers appear to have consolidated their gains from the retrenchment years.

Victorian parsimony and the early champions of modern public sector audit

Abstract: In most Westminster governments the essential characteristics of central government audit can be traced to the British Exchequer and Audit Act 1866. The Act was the pinnacle of government finance and accountability reforms implemented in the middle decades of the nineteenth century which were motivated by the need both to control and reduce government spending. The well-recognised Victorian affection for retrenchment gained its influence over these reforms through the contributions of key committed individuals, most importantly the politicians William Gladstone and Sir James Graham and the civil servant Sir Charles Trevelyan, all of whom were unremitting advocates of economy.

Organizational Theory and Nonprofit Management: An Overview

Abstract: Over the past decade or so, there has been a perceptible increase of interest in, and need for, management knowledge, skills, and training that are specific to the characteristics of charitable, nongovernmental or nonprofit organizations (NPOs) To a large extent, this has been due to significant changes in the institutional environments in which nonprofits operate In much of the West, the purported failure and prophesied end of the traditional welfare state (Pierson, 1991) in combination with the economic recession of the 1970s led to fiscal retrenchment and growing interest in private, more market-oriented approaches to the production and delivery of collective services beginning in the 1980s In the East, the end of state socialism in the late 1980s triggered similar changes, perhaps only more rapidly and with less institutional inertia

Welfare state retrenchment in Central and Eastern Europe: the case of pension reforms in Poland and Slovenia

Abstract: This paper endeavours to shed some light on the mechanisms that led to the divergence of welfare state arrangements across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) In particular, pension system reforms displayed a great deal of variance, which surprised both institutionalists and convergence theorists The Polish and Slovenian cases are thus presented and compared in a political economy perspective Theories of retrenchment, recent studies on the dynamics of CEE pension reforms and consultations with some of the relevant actors, were employed in order to account for the divergence of reform outcomes in the two countries The study focused on three main explanations: partisan competition, the interaction between relevant external (World Bank) and internal actors (Minister of Labour and Minister of Finance) and the trade-off between power concentration and accountability concentration The latter yielded the best explanation While Polish reformers managed to internalise most veto actors’ reservations, Slovenian politicians excluded from consultation the country’s main trade union Its opposition determined the rejection of radical reforms recommended by the World Bank

Trends in infrastructure in Latin America, 1980-2001

Abstract: There is widespread concern across Latin America that the provision of infrastructure services has suffered as a consequence of the retrenchment of the public sector and the insufficient response of the private sector to the opening up of infrastructure industries to private participation in most countries. The authors document the recent trends in infrastructure stocks and infrastructure investment in major Latin American economies. Using an updated dataset constructed for this task, the authors describe the evolution of the quantity and quality of infrastructure assets-power, transport, and telecommunications-as well as the investment expenditures of the public and private sectors. They find that Latin America lags behind the international norm in terms of infrastructure quantity and quality, and there is little evidence that the gap may be closing-except in the telecommunications sector. Furthermore, overall infrastructure investment has fallen, as a combined result of the retrenchment of public investment and the limited response of the private sector, which has been mostly confined to the telecommunications industry. However, there is considerable disparity across countries. On the whole the data show that the countries most successful in attracting large volumes of private investment (Bolivia, Chile, and Colombia) are precisely those where public investment has remained high.

The Politics of Protest Avoidance: Policy Windows, Labor Mobilization, and Pension Reform in France

Abstract: According to Paul Pierson and R. Kent Weaver, the "new politics of the welfare state" is about escaping the popular blame generated by cutbacks affecting a significant portion of the population. Although the concept of blame avoidance helps to explain the political logic of welfare state retrenchment, one can argue that a careful analysis of social policy reform should take into account a largely understudied phenomenon: protest avoidance. Especially present in countries with single party governments and politically active labor unions, protest avoidance is analytically distinct from blame avoidance because it occurs when policy-makers, facing direct and nearly inescapable blame, attempt to reduce the scope of social mobilization triggered by unpopular reforms. In recent decades, successive French governments have successfully introduced major--and unpopular--reforms in the field of pensions, despite the difficulties to frame blame avoidance strategies in the context of France's strong concentration of state power. Focusing on the 1993, 1995, and 2003 pension reform episodes, this paper seeks to demonstrate that right wing governments have generally tried to avoid protest rather than escape blame. We claim that the key element has been avoiding disruptive strike activities by the labor movement, which are highly political in France. We argue that right wing governments have attempted to divide the fragmented labor movement and overload the reform agenda while enacting its most controversial reforms during the summer holiday season. Protest avoidance thus represents a key political variable worthy of study in the literature on welfare state retrenchment. In the future, the concept of protest avoidance could be applied to other countries and policy areas in which elected officials attempt to impose unpopular reforms that trigger social mobilization.

Teacher unions and education policy : retrenchment or reform?

Abstract: Teacher Unions: Continuity and Change. Paralysis or Possibility: What Do Teacher Unions and Collective Bargaining Bring? Teacher Unions: Outcomes and Reform Initiatives. The National Education Association?s New Bipartisanship. Teacher Politics. Teacher Unions and Higher Education: A Policy Impact Perspective. Innovative Local Teacher Unions: What Have They Accomplished? Teacher Union Support of Education Research and Development: Traditions and New Directions. Organizing around Quality: The Struggle to Organize Mind Workers. Toward International Advocacy.

MNCs' Preferred Responses to the Argentine Financial Crisis: A Classification and Empirical Investigation

Abstract: In this paper, we critically review previous studies on multinational companies' responses to financial crises in emerging markets, propose an integral framework to classify crisis responses, and report findings from a survey of multinationals during the recent Argentine financial crisis. The companies surveyed were generally patient and cautious during the crisis. Their most popular response was operational adaptation, which includes restructuring current operations, relieving excess capacity, and cutting costs while keeping the same level of resource commitments. The least popular response was strategic retrenchment, or withdrawing all resource commitments from the market. FDI and non-FDI firms displayed largely similar response patterns, but several differences were noted between exporters and non-exporters, between licensors and non-licensors, and between firms in different industries. We also noted a tendency whereby multinationals separately employed strategic and operational measures. The ...

Social policies in Switzerland and Japan: Managing Change in Liberal‐Conservative Welfare States

Abstract: Both the Swiss and the Japanese welfare states are difficult to classify in any one of the most widespread typologies, as each of the two countries combines features that are typical of the liberal model, such as a large private sector role in the delivery of welfare, with aspects that are more reminiscent of the conservative model These include a social insurance system geared toward status preservation and low employment rates for mothers In this article, Japan and Switzerland are characterised as liberal conservative welfare states After pointing out the key features of this hybrid welfare state model, the article puts forward some hypothesis with regard to the reform trajectory that this model is likely to follow In particular, it is argued that retrenchment in these two countries is likely to be more substantial than in conservative welfare states, because the private schemes that are going to be curtailed are less accountable to public scrutiny and do not automatically expose retrenchment-oriented governments to the risk of electoral punishment The hypothesis is only partially confirmed by the empirical analysis of reform, as Swiss direct democracy institutions are proving a formidable obstacle to a generalised dismantling of welfare programmes In Japan, uncovered needs resulting from retrenchment and social change are being picked up by families