The Autocratic Welfare State Resource Distribution, Credible Commitments and Political Survival

Political Theories of the Welfare State

We review the main theoretical conclusions from a quarter century of comparative studies of welfare states in the affluent democracies. We contrast early debates over the relative importance of industrialization, economic growth, and social classes for explaining welfare state differences with contemporary claims about the role of globalization, postindustrialism, and gender relations in shapin...

Welfare state reform and political allegiance

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Political Survival, Domestic Institutions, and Exchange Rate Commitments

Bernhard and Leblang (1999) argue that since adopting a pegged exchange rate in an era of mobile capital inhibits the use of monetary policy for electoral purposes, elements of domestic political institutions that influence the expected utility of controlling office ought to help determine the choice of exchange rate regime. Clark (2001) argues that since adopting a pegged exchange rate enhance...

Explaining the Survival of the Swedish Welfare State: Maintaining Political Support through Incremental Change

Despite challenges and doomsday predictions, the Nordic welfare states with high taxes and public expenditure are still with us. This paper describes strategic choices for policy makers of the welfare state and uses the case of Sweden to argue that the high tax welfare state has survived several challenges through a process of incremental change, where the welfare state is modified in order to ...

on Political Economy of the Welfare State THEORIES OF THE WELFARE STATE : A CRITIQUE