The Future of the welfare state : crisis myths and crisis realities /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:Castles, Francis G. (Francis Geoffrey), 1943-
Imprint:Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2004.
Description:xi, 197 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Language:English
Subject:
Format: E-Resource Print Book
URL for this record:http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/5515453
Hidden Bibliographic Details
Varying Form of Title:Future of the welfare state
ISBN:0199270171 (hbk.)
0199273928 (pbk.)
Notes:"Based on an examination of twenty-one OECD countries over the period of 1980-98"--P. [vii].
Includes bibliographical references (p. [183]-193) and index.
Also available on the Internet to subscribing institutions.
Standard no.:9780199270170
Description
Summary:Written by one of the world's leading policy researchers, this book seeks to assess the threat posed to modern welfare states by globalization and demographic change. Using empirical methods, and bringing together insights from across the social sciences, Castles interrogates a range of theories suggesting that the welfare state is in crisis. Systematically using data for 21 advanced OECD nations, he distinguishes crisis myths from crisis realities, locating, in the process, likely trajectories of welfare state development in coming decades.The findings of this book confront many of the basic assumptions of contemporary scholarship. Economic globalization has not led to a 'race to the bottom'. Analogous processes within the European Community have not led to a 'downward harmonization' of social spending. There is no 'new politics of the welfare state', with the Left still outspending the Right. Over the past two decades, spending has been increasing and converging across the OECD. Rather than being in a state of crisis, western welfare states have achieved a steady state.The supposed impact of population ageing on social welfare budgets also turns out to be myth, with differences in spending actually being a function of the structure of welfare systems, not of any demographic imperative. The only potentially real threat is of rapidly declining fertility, but Castles argues that welfare state spending in the form of family-friendly public policy is, in fact, our best defence against this problem. This is a book with significant policy implications. It identifies the factors likely to mould welfare state growth and decline in future years, and the diverse problems and challenges confronting welfare state policy-makers in different families of nations. It is a book for those who like assessing evidence before jumping to unwarranted conclusions, and a book for those who wish to see 'the shape of things to come'.
Item Description:"Based on an examination of twenty-one OECD countries over the period of 1980-98"--P. [vii].
Physical Description:xi, 197 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (p. [183]-193) and index.
ISBN:0199270171
0199273928