Showing papers on "Retrenchment published in 2018"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the shrinking state is a product of a restructured social contract between government and citizens and the private sector that has transformed regions and localities, and that these changes, in turn, have led to shifts in state capacity and policy orientation that leave populations bereft of needed public services.
Abstract: This article explores the ‘shrinking state’, the potential erosion of the state from its customary intervention in regulating economic growth and promoting redistribution and the overall weakening of the state as an institution in local/regional affairs. State retreat may be seen in the withdrawal of finance, services and staff as well as the failure to increase these resources to match growing needs, both of which are referred to as ‘retrenchment’ or, in the European case, ‘austerity’. The erosion of the state as an institution is visible in underfunded social programmes, a smaller public sector, weakened regulatory structures, foregone infrastructure projects, public assets sales and continued privatization. This article argues that the ‘shrinking state’ both produces and is a product of a restructured social contract between government and citizens and the private sector that has transformed regions and localities. Although we have not seen wholesale state decline, there have been gradations of state change, especially in qualitative markers such as shifts in state functions, scales of activity, constituencies served and private sector involvement in governmental affairs. These changes, in turn, have led to shifts in state capacity and policy orientation that leave populations bereft of needed public services, increased inequality across geographic areas and sociodemographic groups, and political effects such as the growth of right-wing populism.
73 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify the determinants of the increase in income inequality that OECD countries have experienced over the past two decades and empirically evaluate this hypothesis using data from 25 high-income OECD countries from 1990 to 2013.
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to identify the determinants of the increase in income inequality that OECD countries have experienced over the past two decades. My hypothesis is that along with the financialisation of economies that has taken place since 1990, inequality increased because labour flexibility intensified, labour market institutions weakened as trade unions lost power, and public social spending started to retrench and did not compensate for the vulnerabilities created by the globalisation process. Using data from 25 high-income OECD countries from 1990 to 2013, I empirically evaluate this hypothesis. My results clearly suggest that the increase in inequality over the past two decades is caused by an increase in financialisation, a deepening of labour flexibility, the weakening of trade unions and the retrenchment of the welfare state.
66 citations
TL;DR: Overall, Germany's self-funding, social insurance approach provides evidence for the financial viability of a social insurance model, although longer-term challenges may yet arise.
Abstract: Background and objectives Since 1995, Germany has operated one of the longest-running public programs providing universal support for the cost of long term services and supports (LTSS). Its self-funding, social insurance approach provides basic supports to nearly all Germans. We discuss its design and development, including recent reforms expanding the program and ensuring its ongoing sustainability. Research design and methods The study reviews legislative and programmatic changes, using program data, as well as legislative documents and program reports. Results The program is widely accepted among citizens and has achieved many of its original goals: ensuring access to LTSS and reducing reliance on the locally-funded safety-net social assistance program, which can be used to cover nursing home costs. It also strengthened the LTSS provider infrastructure and expanded access to home care. Recent reforms have addressed some of the program's key issues: the benefit's decreasing value, the eligibility and benefit structure that largely excluded cognitive impairment, and the program's longer-term financial sustainability-particularly its ability to sustain newly expanded benefits, which provide stronger protections to caregivers, index-link benefits, and more systematically incorporate cognitive impairment via a new assessment system. It has addressed financing issues by increasing premiums, introducing subsidies for the purchase of private insurance, and creating a "demographic reserve fund." Discussion and implications The reforms constitute a significant strengthening of the program, remarkable in an era of retrenchment. Overall, the program provides evidence for the financial viability of a social insurance model, although longer-term challenges may yet arise.
60 citations
Dissertation•
06 Nov 2018
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a comprehensive overview of the different pillars of the Swedish unemployment benefit provision system today and analyzes the interactions between the pillars as well as the distributive implications of the system.
Abstract: The unemployed in Sweden today have to relate to several types of benefit schemes. Apart from the public unemployment insurance program, different workplaces are covered by different complementary benefit arrangements regulated by collective agreements between employer and union organizations. These Employment Transitional Agreements have existed since the 1970s but have expanded further in scope to include the entire labor market. Besides this occupational welfare arrangement, there are complementary income insurance schemes that the majority of labor unions provide for their members, covering half of the working population today. These are meant to top-up the benefits from the public unemployment insurance program or prolong the benefit payment period. Complementary income insurance schemes first appeared in the late 1990s and expanded quickly during the last fifteen years. While union-provided, group-based insurance schemes dominate the market, there are also private income insurance plans operating based on risk assessment and premium-setting practices on the individual level.This dissertation addresses the questions of how and why these complementary benefits for the unemployed developed and their distributive outcomes. As the public unemployment insurance program has continued to retrench since the 1990s in terms of benefit generosity, coverage as well as recipiency rate, understanding the role of the occupational and private pillars providing the complementary benefits and the interactions between these becomes crucial if we want to understand the actual outcome of the unemployment benefit provision system as a whole.Theoretically, this dissertation accounts for the institutional changes and outcomes of the Swedish unemployment benefit provision system through a multi-pillar perspective. The pillar perspective helps us analyze changes despite relatively stable institutional structure of the Swedish public unemployment insurance program, by highlighting the new roles and distributive logics of the newer loci of the unemployment benefit provision system. Without launching a sweeping statutory institutional reform, the division of responsibility over income protection for the unemployed has been redefined between the state, unions, individuals and market actors – which has implications for the outcomes of unemployment protection.Empirically, the dissertation provides a comprehensive overview of the different pillars of the Swedish unemployment benefit provision system today and analyzes the interactions between the pillars as well as the distributive implications of the system. Moreover, the dissertation explores the outcome of multi-pillarization through a benefit recipiency study targeting unemployed retail workers, using both register as well as survey data.The results highlight that in spite of the institutionalization of both the occupational and private pillars formally achieving a comprehensive coverage for a large part of the working population, in practice there is not only differentiated access to the complementary benefits across different occupations and sectors but also different barriers and mechanisms leading to certain groups of individuals becoming disentitled from the institutionalized unemployment protection system. This gap between the output-level of multi-pillarization and the outcome of the Swedish unemployment benefit provision system may be accounted for by the specific path to multi-pillarization that has been strongly shaped by the institutional legacies of the Ghent system, where unions have played a significant role, as well as labor market developments characterized by a dualization tendency. (Less)
38 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the implications and social effects of human capital theory were analyzed and it was shown that the posseseses of language skills are marketable assets or human capital.
Abstract: Languages and language skills are commonly tagged as a marketable asset, or ‘human capital’. The article analyses the implications and social effects of Human Capital Theory. I show that the posses...
36 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a comparison of Trump's and Reagan's environmental records is made, and the authors find continuities in their ideologies and actions, concluding that despite the Reagan Administration's efforts, environmental laws and institutions were not dismantled during the 1980s due to the countervailing forces of congress, the public, and environmental advocacy groups.
Abstract: Since assuming office, President Trump has initiated a broad rollback of President Obama’s environmental policies. Political commentators have already drawn comparisons between the Reagan and Trump Administrations’ approaches to the environment given their shared explicit attacks on environmental policy. In this paper, I probe this historical resonance through a comparison of Trump’s and Reagan’s environmental records, and find continuities in their ideologies and actions. Despite the Reagan Administration’s efforts, environmental laws and institutions were not dismantled during the 1980s due to the countervailing forces of congress, the public, and environmental advocacy groups. But, while environmental laws and institutions may have been resilient in the past, contemporary political conditions call into question this resilience. Partisan polarization in both congress and the public and changes in the Republican Party will likely preclude an environmental backlash similar to that experienced by Reagan. Instead, environmental advocacy groups and the courts will function as the primary bulwarks against environmental policy retrenchment. Despite their efforts, the Trump Administration is likely to have significant impacts on environmental policy through executive action.
36 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed the effects of sickness and disability policies for the working-age population in a number of OECD countries, between the years 1990 and 2014, and found that there has been a broad shift in focus from passive income maintenance to employment incentives and reintegration policies.
Abstract: We analysed sickness and disability policies for the working-age population in a number of OECD countries, between the years 1990 and 2014 Existing evidence suggests that there has been a broad shift in focus from passive income maintenance to employment incentives and reintegration policies We have updated detailed policy scores provided by the OECD to estimate model-based country clusters Our results indicate that countries have pursued different types of reforms consisting of a combination of integration and compensation measures The reforms of recent decades have led to the emergence of a distinct cluster of Northern and Continental European countries characterised by a combination of strong employment-oriented policies and comparatively high social protection levels An analysis of recent reforms shows a continued expansion of measures that foster employment as well as instances of retrenchment in the compensation dimension Diversity of policy settings across country groups, however, remains substantial
35 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors distinguish three possible responses to such pressures: embedding, the inclusion of Union citizens in the welfare system; quarantining, restrictive measures excluding mobile Union citizens; and retrenchment, general cutbacks in benefit programmes.
Abstract: It is often held that free movement within the European Union and the expansion of social rights of mobile citizens by the European Court of Justice place national welfare states under pressure, potentially leading to welfare retrenchment. Yet thorough empirical investigation of this claim has been surprisingly limited. In this article, we distinguish three possible responses to such pressures: ‘embedding’, the inclusion of Union citizens in the welfare system; ‘quarantining’, restrictive measures excluding mobile Union citizens; and ‘retrenchment’, general cutbacks in benefit programmes. Through a longitudinal comparative case study of generous non-contributory welfare benefits in Denmark and the Netherlands, we find general welfare retrenchment in response to Europeanisation strikingly limited. Instead, welfare states remain resilient by creatively quarantining mobile Union citizens from the coverage of social benefits. Legal cultures and degrees of politicization are important factors, shaping the pathways towards these creative but exclusionary responses.
31 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the influence of the Troika on the retrenchment and reform of social security in Ireland during its bailout between 2010 and 2013, and argued that the scope for domestic decision-making was heavily constrained, yet non-trivial.
Abstract: This paper examines the influence of the Troika on the retrenchment and reform of social security in Ireland during its bailout between 2010 and 2013. To do this, it draws on data from in-depth interviews with senior civil servants and civil society organisation staff who met with the Troika as part of their quarterly missions to Ireland during this period. The key themes which emerged from these interviews include the largely domestic origins of social security retrenchment and reform; the surprising, and distinctive, positions adopted by the European Commission and the IMF; the extent of the Irish government’s room for manoeuver in this area, and the ways in which the Irish government defended social security against proposals for additional cuts put forward by the Troika. The paper concludes by arguing that the scope for domestic decision-making was heavily constrained, yet non-trivial, and that the Troika’s influence comprised not only ‘powering’ but also ‘persuasion’.
31 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared the financial efforts that governments have put into social investment and social protection-oriented policies, highlighting the different trajectories taken by EU welfare states at the crisis crossroads.
Abstract: The social investment approach has been advocated as a blueprint for recasting European welfare states since the years of the Lisbon Strategy. After the Euro crisis squeezed the fiscal space available for welfare recalibration, the question has been raised as to whether social investment could withstand the economic turmoil. Relying on a new welfare expenditure dataset constructed from various Eurostat sources, this article looks at the budgetary recalibration of 27 EU welfare states from the launch of the Lisbon Strategy to the aftermath of the Euro crisis (2000 to 2014). It compares the financial efforts that governments have put into social investment- and social protection-oriented policies, highlighting the different trajectories taken by EU welfare states at the crisis crossroads. Four scenarios for welfare recalibration are put forward, based on the social investment perspective and its critiques. The results show that the overall progress made by social investment in welfare budgets since 2000 came to a halt with the outbreak of the crisis. Bleaker scenarios materialised, whereas EU welfare states pursued retrenchment rather than investment, or had to face harsher budgetary trade-offs, expanding social investment to the detriment of social protection.
30 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a review article reflects on the consequences of different takes on termination, compares and reports on the main findings thus far and argues that we should study organizational survival focusing on transitions to build on existing empirical work.
Abstract: Why do some public organizations survive and others do not? The bureaucratic retrenchment efforts since the 1980s showed public administration scholars that the structure of the state has its own demography. Yet studies on the survival of public organizations tested different hypotheses using different methods and definitions. This review article reflects on the consequences of different takes on termination, it compares and reports on the main findings thus far and argues that we should study organizational survival focusing on transitions to build on existing empirical work.
TL;DR: The politics and partial success of Congress in repealing the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, is assessed, with particular attention to lobbying by governors, highlighting how state responses to Trump administrative initiatives affected ACA durability.
Abstract: This article assesses the politics and partial success of Congress in repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare, with particular attention to lobbying by governors. Most Republican governors behaved as members of a vertical partisan coalition supporting the national party rather than defending insurance coverage in their states. But the activities of a significant minority of these governors impeded ACA retrenchment. We also examine the role of executive federalism, highlighting how state responses to Trump administrative initiatives affected ACA durability. The Trump administration drew on waivers, executive orders, funding decisions, administrative rules, the social media, and other executive branch tools to sabotage the health insurance exchanges and undercut Medicaid. As of 2018, the Trump administration actions had contributed to some erosion in exchange coverage, but far less than many had anticipated. The degree to which Medicaid waivers encouraged by the Trump administration will precipitate enrollment declines in that program remains to be seen.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on local policing and consider the relationship between growing city-level law enforcement expenditures and two shifts: first, the move toward an economy increasingly organized around residential real estate; and second, city level welfare retrenchment.
Abstract: Abstract:The United States witnessed a dramatic expansion of the penal state from the 1970s to the Great Recession of 2008. One key puzzle is why penal state growth continued unabated long after crime levels peaked in the early 1990s. We focus on local policing and consider the relationship between growing city-level law enforcement expenditures and two shifts: first, the move toward an economy increasingly organized around residential real estate; and second, city-level welfare retrenchment. We argue that increasing economic reliance on housing price appreciation during the late 1990s and the 2000s heightened demand for expanded law enforcement even as actual risks of crime victimization fell. At the same time, cities increasingly addressed social problems through criminal justice—rather than social service—capacities. We assess these arguments using a dataset of 171 cities' police expenditures between 1992 and 2010. Results of a dynamic panel model indicate that places with more pronounced reliance on housing price growth and mortgage investment exhibited correspondingly greater growth of local law enforcement, as did places with decreased social service spending.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an intensive case study of the development of the National Flood Insurance Program to advance two key arguments: the conventional model of adoption of general interest reform neglects an important aspect of political context: whether the relevant policy domain is one with or without publics.
Abstract: In this paper, I present an intensive case study of the development of the National Flood Insurance Program to advance two key arguments. First, the conventional model of adoption of general interest reform neglects an important aspect of political context: whether the relevant policy domain is one with or without “publics.” I argue that in domains without publics the politics of reform will differ substantially from the accepted model. Second, I argue that the type of learning necessary to address a given policy failure matters in reform politics. Instrumental learning is necessary but may not be sufficient for successful general interest reforms. When the social construction of a policy failure is such that many people misconceive of the fundamental purpose of a policy, social learning must take place before instrumental learning can be effective.
TL;DR: As Africa's urban systems change and transform with more women becoming educated and getting work outside the home and more men are confronting unemployment and retrenchment, an emerging phenomenon is emerging phenomenon.
Abstract: As Africa’s urban systems change and transform with more women becoming educated and getting work outside the home and more men are confronting unemployment and retrenchment, an emerging phenomenon...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate how one urban school district (Lansing School District in Lansing, MI) dealt with cuts to elementary arts programs, with the intent of improving understanding of cuts.
Abstract: With the intent of improving understanding of cuts to elementary arts programs, the purpose of this research was to investigate how one urban school district (Lansing School District in Lansing, Mi...
TL;DR: This study investigates whether adults with elderly parents who have used long-term care services and supports, compared to other constituency groups, perceive the Medicaid program as more important, are more knowledgeable about program benefits, and are more likely to oppose Medicaid funding cuts.
Abstract: Medicaid has grown substantially over time; indeed, more than half of all Americans have some connection to the program. Considering that Medicaid retrenchment is the centerpiece of recent proposal...
TL;DR: The authors argue that a series of converging trends provided political cover for the reforms, including fiscal stress from low world oil prices, escalating regional instability, international environmental pressure, as well as untenable growth in domestic consumption of exportable commodities.
Abstract: Oil-exporting states in the Middle East and North Africa have launched reforms of long-standing energy subsidies thought to comprise an important source of legitimacy for autocratic regimes. The actions challenge enduring academic assumptions of the illegitimacy of retrenchment in polities underwritten by hydrocarbon rents. Here, I argue that a series of converging trends provided political cover for the reforms, including fiscal stress from low world oil prices, escalating regional instability, international environmental pressure, as well as untenable growth in domestic consumption of exportable commodities. While the reforms signal an important shift in state–society relations, the new policies appear to be designed to update — rather than jettison — rent-based autocratic governance.
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the drivers of the retrenchment in cross-border banking in the European Union (EU) since the global financial crisis, which stands out in international comparison as banks located in the euro area and in the rest of the EU reduced their crossborder claims by around 25%.
Abstract: This paper examines the drivers of the retrenchment in cross-border banking in the European Union (EU) since the global financial crisis, which stands out in international comparison as banks located in the euro area and in the rest of the EU reduced their cross-border claims by around 25%. Particularly striking is the sharp and sustained reduction in intra-EU claims, especially in the form of deleveraging from cross-border interbank loans. Examining a wide range of possible determinants, we identify high non-performing loans as an important impediment to cross-border lending after the crisis, highlighting the spillovers from national banking sector conditions across the EU. We also find evidence that prudential policies can entail spillovers via cross-border banking in the EU, albeit with heterogeneity across instruments in terms of direction, magnitude and significance. Our results do not point to a major role of newly introduced bank levies in explaining cross-border banking developments. JEL Classification: F21, F30, F42, G15, G28
Dissertation•
01 Nov 2018
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the interaction between states as independent actors with a stake in stabilising the welfare system, and financial welfare providers with a commercial interest in public support for private welfare.
Abstract: Welfare privatisation is generally analysed as welfare state retrenchment or liberalisation: reducing the role of public provision is understood as reducing the role of the state in allocating welfare benefits. This thesis starts from the puzzling observation that pension privatisation seems to go hand in hand with more active state interference in the allocation of private pensions. In order to explain the political dynamics that drive state intervention in the organisation of private welfare, this project moves away from established explanations based on electoral politics and social partner mobilisation. Instead it focuses on the interaction between states as independent actors with a stake in stabilising the welfare system, and financial welfare providers with a commercial interest in public support for private welfare.
The first paper examines why Germany and the UK - despite having very different institutional backgrounds - exhibit a surprisingly similar shift away from their voluntarist approach to organising private welfare since the 1990s. This supports the central argument of this thesis.
The second paper focuses on explaining one important aspect of recreating social protection within private welfare provision: the ability to organise collective risk-sharing to protect against financial volatility. Whereas prevailing explanations focus on social partner voluntarism, this paper compares Denmark and the Netherlands to argue that analytical attention should shift to how regulatory frameworks are required for overcoming distributional struggles.
The third paper explains regulatory interventions that go against financial interests in order to achieve social objectives. Examining efforts in the UK to reduce pension charges, it shows that variation in regulatory decisions does not necessarily reflect differences in pressure by voters or organised interest groups. Instead policy-makers make their own assessment of whether regulatory intervention promotes the expansion of private welfare provision – balancing social stability with commercial viability.
05 Sep 2018
TL;DR: In this article, a bi-dimensional definition of health policy legitimacy, encompassing both public satisfaction with the health system and the normative expectation as to the extent of state involvement in health care, is adopted.
Abstract: The legitimacy of social policies has gained increasing attention in the past decade, against the backdrop of fiscal austerity and retrenchment in many nations. Policy legitimacy encompasses public preferences for the underlying principles of policies and the actual outcomes as perceived by citizens. Scholarly knowledge concerning the legitimacy of health policy – a major element of modern social policy architecture – is, unfortunately, limited. This article seeks to extend the scholarly debates on health policy legitimacy from the West to Hong Kong, a member of the East Asian welfare state cluster. A bi-dimensional definition of health policy legitimacy – encompassing both public satisfaction with the health system and the normative expectation as to the extent of state involvement in health care – is adopted. Based on analysis of data collected from a telephone survey of adult Hong Kong citizens between late 2014 and early 2015, the findings of this study demonstrate a fairly high level of satisfaction with the territory's health system, but popular support for government responsibility presents a clear residual characteristic. The study also tests the self-interest thesis and the ideology thesis – major theoretical frameworks for explaining social policy legitimacy – in the Hong Kong context. Egalitarian ideology and trust in government are closely related to both public satisfaction with the system and popular support for governmental provision of care. However, the self-interest thesis receives partial support. The findings are interpreted in the context of Hong Kong's health system arrangements, while implications for the territory's ongoing health policy reform are discussed.
TL;DR: The authors examines the impact of fiscal austerity on EU labour market policies and finds that the broad direction of policy has not altered greatly under austerity. But risks remain that an underlying move towards greater flexibility may lock in low road growth strategies that will make it harder to bring down debt and unemployment in future.
Abstract: This working paper examines the impact of fiscal austerity on EU labour market policies. Using a case study approach, it examines: the extent of change in unemployment benefit levels and policies; the effect of this on groups of workers; and whether the logic of activation policies has shifted. Overall, the broad direction of policy has not altered greatly under austerity. However, risks remain that an underlying move towards greater flexibility may lock in ‘low road’ growth strategies that will make it harder to bring down debt and unemployment in future.
By providing a detailed map of developments in labour markets after 2010 in 11 country case studies, the working paper tackles broad questions of welfare state change under conditions of austerity. It finds that, rather than following strategies of either retrenchment or expansion in welfare systems, the countries under examination have combined several elements in what can therefore be termed ‘mixed’ reform programmes. As a result, divergence across and within labour market regimes are much in evidence. Overall, however, the reforms amount to a move towards more flexibility and activation, and less security and protection. The paper also notes that, while labour market policies remain a national competence, the indirect pressure for reform from the EU has increased substantially.
TL;DR: This paper analyzed redistribution effects during retrenchment and crisis in 31 welfare states using a new data set from a refined analysis of unemployment replacement rates of low-, middle-and middle-class workers.
Abstract: This article analyses redistribution effects during retrenchment and crisis in 31 welfare states using a new data set from a refined analysis of unemployment replacement rates of low-, middle- and ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined whether the impact of welfare retrenchments can be explained by proximity, i.e. whether or not the retrenched policy is related to people's everyday lives, and found that people proximate to a welfare policy react substantially stronger to retrenchment reforms than the general public.
Abstract: A large body of literature has provided mixed results on the impact of welfare retrenchments on government support. This article examines whether the impact of welfare retrenchments can be explained by proximity, i.e. whether or not the retrenched policy is related to people's everyday lives. To overcome limitations in previous studies, the empirical approach utilizes a natural experiment with data from the European Social Survey collected concurrently with a salient retrenchment reform of the education grant system in Denmark. The results confirm that people proximate to a welfare policy react substantially stronger to retrenchment reforms than the general public. Robustness and placebo tests further show that the results are not caused by non-personal proximities or satisfaction levels not related to the reform and the government. In sum, the findings speak to a growing body of literature interested in the impact of government policies on mass public.
TL;DR: The authors examines the sources of funding for public university education in Tanzania and examines the trends in Other Charges and Capital Development funding for selected public universities in Tanzania, and also examines the trend in other charges and capital development.
Abstract: This article examines the sources of funding for public university education in Tanzania. The article also examines the trends in Other Charges and Capital Development funding for selected public u...
01 Nov 2018
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the character of retrenchment policies is shaped by a combination of domestic and international factors, such as budgetary procedures, intra-coalitional conflicts, and the emergence of urgency situations.
Abstract: The policy agenda literature shows that budget cuts tend to be rarer and less extreme than budget expansions. This article argues that the character of retrenchment policies is shaped by a combination of domestic and international factors, such as budgetary procedures, intra-coalitional conflicts, and the emergence of urgency situations. Building on the findings of several quantitative studies on budgetary changes, we develop two propositions explaining why the necessity to reduce expenditures usually leads to across-the-board cuts. We also hypothesize two mechanisms which can occasionally produce selective outcomes. This article focuses on the last 30 years to observe how the annual package of public finance corrections has impacted on the main categories of public spending. This analysis combines an original measure of the transformative nature of the yearly fiscal packages approved by parliament with process-tracing methodology. The qualitative analysis focuses on three cases of linear cuts and one deviant case of selective cuts. Findings show that the persistence of frictions in the Italian budgetary process is often a basic reason for the introduction of linear cuts, but the logic of urgency triggered by the European external constraint was able to produce a selective outcome.
TL;DR: There is widespread consensus in the comparative welfare state literature that the welfare state can be best conceptualized in terms of social rights of citizenship as discussed by the authors, and the Social Citizenship Indicato...
Abstract: There is widespread consensus in the comparative welfare state literature that the welfare state can be best conceptualized in terms of social rights of citizenship. The Social Citizenship Indicato...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine healthcare retrenchment in the Spanish regions and find that although the regional governments were all subjected to considerable budget constraints and were forced to cut social policies, they were also able to ensure a certain degree of leeway in selecting their individual healthcare rerenchment policies, in part by strategically utilising the multilevel institutions provided by the Spanish Autonomic State.
Abstract: To what extent, in the context of severe economic crisis, do governments of the right and the left have room for manoeuvre to choose their fiscal consolidation paths? To what degree might this margin be broader in multilevel systems? The severity of the crisis suffered by Spain since 2007, combined with the significant scope of the powers and related expenditure capacities of the Autonomous Communities, make the Spanish regions a highly suitable case for controlled comparisons of fiscal adjustment policies and welfare reforms. Specifically examining healthcare retrenchment in the regions, we find that although the regional governments were all subjected to considerable budget constraints and were forced to cut social policies, they were also able to ensure a certain degree of leeway in selecting their individual healthcare retrenchment policies, in part by strategically utilising the multilevel institutions provided by the Spanish Autonomic State.