6,465 research outputs found

    The State in the Modernization Process. The case of Norway 1850 - 1970

    Get PDF
    Number of pages: XV, 415 p

    A Risk Allocation Approach to Optimal Exchange Rate Policy

    Get PDF
    We derive the optimal exchange rate policy for a small open economy subject to terms-of-trade shocks. Firm owners and workers are risk averse but workers more so. Wages are given or partially indexed in the short run, and capital markets are imperfect. The government sets the exchange rate to allocate risk between workers and owners. With less risk-averse firms, and greater difference in risk aversion between workers and firms, the optimal exchange rate should vary little with pure terms-of-trade shocks but more with general shocks to prices. Optimal exchange rate variation is greater with indexed wages, but is smaller when firms behave monopolistically and when wage taxes (profit taxes) change procyclically (countercyclically) with export prices (import prices). The model gives policy rules for determining optimal variations of the exchange rate, and indicates when it is, and is not, optimal to join a currency union with trading partners, implying zero exchange rate variation.currency band, monetary union, price volatility, optimal risk allocation

    Cleavages and Coalitions. Comprehensive School Reforms in Norway and North Rhine-Westphalia/Germany (1954-1979)

    Get PDF
    Under embargo until: 18.06.2021This study examines comprehensive school reforms in Norway and the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in the period from around 1954 to 1979 from a comparative-historical perspective. In both cases, great educational expansions took place during this period. However, in Norway, the expansion was connected to a prolongation of comprehensive schooling from seven to nine years and to the abolition of grading in lower secondary schooling, while in Germany multi-tiered parallel schooling from grade five persisted despite attempts at reform. The study examines potential reasons for this difference in historical outcomes. In doing so, it sheds light not only on the dynamics of school politics, but also contributes to the general understanding of the different cleavage structures and balances of power of the two societies. The results and arguments of the study can be summarized in three steps. Firstly, it places the post-war reforms of primary and lower secondary schooling in the context of the long-term institutional development of the two countries’ school systems. It explores the history of comprehensive and other structural reforms, as well as the history of school political debates about state-church conflicts, centralization, language or women’s access to education. It is shown that the Norwegian trend towards comprehensivization dates back well into the 19th century, as does the German trend towards hierarchical differentiation of school types. This indicates that feedback effects of previous reforms play a role in both cases. At the same time, there are also great similarities between the two cases. In both Norway and Prussia/Rhineland-Westphalia, recurring debates led to reform phases of educational expansion, during which liberal and later social democratic reformers propagated comprehensive schooling, while many conservatives – especially in Germany, and less militantly also in Norway – opposed it. The post-war reform phase shaped the school system significantly in both cases and left important legacies, so it can be considered a particularly relevant critical juncture. Furthermore, in the second half of the 1970s there was a political trend reversal in both cases, forcing social democratic governments to relinquish their most far-reaching reform ideas. Despite a certain amount of path dependence, the development was open to the extent that more similar school political compromises could have come about if actors had made different choices. Secondly, the thesis offers a detailed, comparative analysis of the material power resources and of the ideology and degree of ideological unity of the protagonists, consenters and antagonists of comprehensive school reforms. It is shown that the distribution of material power resources is relevant, for example in the sense that reform protagonists in Norway were somewhat stronger with regard to their membership numbers, election results and organizational unity. However, it also becomes clear that material power resources and interests are not the whole story. Ideology must be considered as an important additional factor. The analysis shows that actors were divided ideologically along a left/right-axis in both cases, indicating that conflicts over comprehensive schooling are an expression of the class cleavage. There are similarities between the ideologies of the major collective actors; for example, the main argument of reform protagonists was in both cases their quest for social equality and justice, while reform antagonists valued academic standards, selection based on competitive achievement and parental rights. At the same time, the arguments, which became hegemonic in the two cases, differ greatly. In Norway, the idea that parallel schooling, tracking and ability grouping contribute to an unacceptable reproduction of inequality became hegemonic. Teaching all students in the same classes, independent of their background and abilities, was also justified with the need to create a spirit of cooperation and to foster joy in learning. Even some representatives of the Norwegian Conservative Party consented to this kind of thinking and the party remained split over school politics, at least until the 1970s. In Germany, on the other hand, the hegemonic ideological argument was that learning is facilitated by supposedly homogenous ability groups and that students should therefore be divided into school types which are in accordance with their biological endowments. In particular, the legitimacy of the Gymnasium as the school type of high-achievers and future elites remained high. Several leading social democrats in NRW were influenced by this thinking and did not support comprehensive school reforms wholeheartedly, so the German Social Democratic Party was split on the issue. Finally, the thesis emphasizes the importance of the unequal cleavage structures of Norway and NRW/Germany for the different cross-class coalitions, which came about in school politics. It spells out how the rural-urban cleavage, the center-periphery cleavage, the statechurch cleavage, the communist-socialist cleavage and the gender cleavage came to expression in school political debates in the two cases and how these affected the outcomes of attempts at comprehensive school reform. In the Norwegian case, the rural-urban and centerperiphery cleavages manifested themselves in emotional debates about centralization, Christian education and language. The state-church cleavage also played a role in debates about Christian private schooling and about the Christian preamble of the school law. The gender cleavage came to expression for example in debates about coeducation and equal curricula for boys and girls. Overall, the Labor Party mostly succeeded in handling these cleavages in a way which at least did not sabotage and sometimes even strengthened its comprehensive school reforms. In particular, it formed an alliance with the rural population, with the primary school teachers and with the women’s movement. However, potential alliances between the political center and the Conservative Party were weakened by disagreements over these issues. In the case of NRW, on the other hand, the state-church cleavage was a major obstacle for the social democrats and their liberal allies. The Catholic rural population was integrated in a broad cross-class coalition under the umbrella of the Christian Democratic Union, for example over issues such as denominational schooling, Catholic private schooling and the centralization of “dwarf schools” so a potential reform alliance with the social democrats was out of the question. The state-church cleavage also split the teachers’ organizations and the women’s movement. Primary and lower secondary school teachers were split into social democratic and Christian currents, which made it easier for Gymnasium teachers to dominate politically. Catholic women’s and teachers’ organizations played an important role in Catholic private schooling for girls and stood in opposition to liberal and leftwing parts of the women’s movement with regard to topics such as coeducation, equal curricula for the sexes and comprehensive schooling. The gender cleavage therefore did not weaken the internal unity of the Christian democrats and their allies. Finally, the communist-socialist cleavage played an important role in NRW. Antagonists employed anti-communist arguments against comprehensive schooling regularly. The prevalence of anti-communism deepened the internal splits of the social democrats and the teachers’ organizations and thus weakened them considerably

    The development of family policies in a familist welfare state: the Spanish case, 1900-1958

    Full text link
    [eng] The low development of family policies has been considered a fundamental feature of contemporary southern European welfare states. As a result, family relations and inter-generational solidarity emerged as preferred welfare providers in the Spanish, Portuguese and Italian mixed welfare economies. As most determinants of the emergence of welfare regimes are related to long-term factors and path dependency, historical research has a fundamental role in disentangling family policy changes and regularities. Nonetheless, historical inquiries on the formation of family policies are still scarce. This thesis provides an in-depth, historical analysis of family policy formation by taking the development of Spanish maternity leaves and family allowances from 1900 to 1960 as a case study and approaching it from a European comparative perspective. Chapter 1 presents the first systematic comparison of the development of European family policies up to 1960, and it is also the first step to frame the Spanish case within the European context. After that, the study focuses on Spain as a case study to disentangle the political economy of family policy formation. Therefore, Chapter 2 analyses the political debates that shaped the formation of compulsory maternity leave insurance in Spain from 1900 to 1944 and shows how political regime changes conditioned such a process. Finally, it investigates the underlying debates on family allowances and the influence of the political regime in shaping the scheme between 1926 and 1958. The thesis has implications for the comparative welfare state regimes literature, for analysing the impact of political regime and religion (Catholicism) on social policy formation, and for understanding the gendered dimensions of early social reforms

    Trade, conflicts and political integration : explaining the heterogeneity of regional trade agreements

    Get PDF
    This paper investigates the determinants of the shape of regional trade agreements (RTAs). Because the world is constituted by independent political entities, international trade flows take place in a system where property rights are unsecured and RTAs should be understood as regulation mechanisms. In this theoretical framework, trade and security issues interact in the formation of RTAs, so that their determinants differ according to their level of political integration, defined by their ability to promote the negotiated settlement of conflicts. Empirical results confirm that countries more subject to interstate disputes and naturally more opened to trade are more likely to create politically integrated regional agreements, such as common markets or custom unions. On the contrary, international insecurity deters less integrated agreements implying a weak institutional framework, such as preferential or free trade agreements.International conflicts, political integration, regionalism, trade, war.

    The politics today companion to West European politics

    Full text link
    This book is an essential reference guide for students of West European politics and West European area studies. A perfect companion to European politics today (by the same authors), it contains details of major events, political leaders, important dates, organisations and recent elections, all in an accessible, easy-to-read format. A comprehensive reference work, the book also provides a sound historical background for students of contemporary Europe. It covers the information and terms of reference students need to know to understand developments in European politics from the Second World War to the present day. Much of the book is devoted to those European countries most often featured in comparative courses in colleges and universities: the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain as well as the European Union. Also included are details of personalities and events which have proved decisive for smaller and less familiar European democracies. From Resistance leaders to presidents, civil wars to scandals, the forces shaping the Europe of today are detailed in this book. This book is ideal for undergraduate students on politics, European studies and area studies courses

    Market forces and workers’ power resources : A sociological account of real wage growth in advanced capitalism

    Get PDF
    An early version of this paper was presented at the annual meetings of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) at the University of California, Berkeley, 24-26 June 2016. The author thanks Matthew Mahutga, Tali Kristal, and several anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Funding The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.Peer reviewedPostprin
    corecore