Description
Book SynopsisThe Right and the Welfare State studies the welfare state policies of conservative and liberal governments. These parties have been assumed to be nothing but the welfare-sceptical flip-side of the Left, but the book presents a new theory arguing that the conventional wisdom is wrong. The policy goals of the Right - and the political means by which they pursue them - is a lot less straightforward than simply pro or con the welfare state. The book uses the distinction between labor market risks and life-course risks in order to explain why the Right''s voters care much more about some social programs than about others and why, consequently, the policies of Right governments are much more diverse than is normally thought. The book also introduces the concepts of marketization via layering and erode and attack to help explain the peculiar approach to reforms adopted by Right governments. The book analyses data on public opinion and public policies from a large set of Western democracies an
Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. Theoretical Framework ; 3. Preferences for Risk Protection ; 4. A Quantitative Analysis of the Partisan Politics of Risk Protection ; 5. The Fine Art of Marketization ; 6. Erode and Attack ; 7. New Perspectives on the Welfare State
