Problems and Paradoxes in Economic and Social Policies of Modern Welfare States

Relationships between economic growth rates and the expansion of welfare expenditures in Western nations are examined. The point is made that real gross national product grew rapidly from about 1959 until about 1973, but that since 1973 it has either grown slowly or not at all, while welfare expenditures and entitlements have continued to escalate. Forecasts of a variety of important economic variables in these countries for the near term are presented and discussed, and it is concluded that despite the current modest economic improvement, difficulties in funding welfare states will continue throughout the remainder of the 1980s. Some consideration is given to problems in welfare states to the end of the century, and further difficulties in funding and managing these states are forecast for this period as well. Problems of welfare states are not regarded as short-term by-products of maladjustments experienced in the Western world in the last 10 years but rather as long-term characteristics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67103/2/10.1177_000271628547900102.pd

Political Trust and Job Insecurity in 18 European Polities

Several decades of trust research has confirmed that difficult national economic conditions help explain citizens’ low levels of political trust. But research points to a much less important role for personal economic factors. The latter finding, it is argued here, is a result of flawed survey questions and model misspecification. We actually know very little about the precise economic concerns that may generate low levels of trust and about the mechanisms via which they do so, resulting in a rather thin causal story. This paper seeks to address this lacuna, focusing on an issue of increasing importance in advanced economies: job insecurity. Using individual-level data from 18 European polities at two different time points, the paper finds that job insecurity generates lower levels of trust in politicians, political parties and political institutions and lower levels of satisfaction with democratic performance. Importantly, job insecurity’s effect does not diminish as one moves from specific to more diffuse objects of political trust, as previous research suggests it should. The paper also finds that the effect of job insecurity is exacerbated if citizens have negative perceptions of the performance of the wider economy. Finally, and drawing on the occupational psychology literature, the paper proposes a novel causal mechanism to link job insecurity to political trust. The intuition is that job insecurity violates a ‘psychologicaldemocratic’ trust contract between workers and the state. The mechanism is consistent with the observed results. The paper thus contributes to both the empirical and theoretical debates on the linkages between political trust and economic performance

Tony Blair and John Howard: comparative predominance and 'Institution Stretch' in the UK and Australia

It has recently been argued that the UK premier enjoys a level of executive power unavailable to US presidents, but how does he or she compare to another prime minister operating within a broadly similar system? Commonalities of intra-executive influence and capacity exist under the premierships in the UK and Australia. Discrete institutional constraints and deviations are evident, but trends and similarities in resource capacity can be clearly identified. These include: the growth of the leaders' office; broadening and centralising of policy advice and media operations; and strengthening of the role and function of ministerial advisers. I contend that this amounts to 'institution stretch', with new structures, processes and practices becoming embedded in the political system by the incumbents. © 2007 The Author. Journal compilation © 2007 Political Studies Association

Looking for the women in Baron and Taylor's (1969) Educational administration and the social sciences

A search for women in Baron and Taylor's (1969) Educational administration and the social sciences [London: The Athlone Press] using feminist poststructural discourse analysis (FPDA) has revealed a changing discourse about gendered educational administration over the course of 50 years. Whilst few women are featured in the text itself, citations of women's writing surface the historical contributions of women as headmistresses and public servants. Women who have cited the text since its publication have challenged gendered theory and academic writing conventions. FPDA is used to explore the gendered educational administration discourse through the intertextuality of academic writing. Fluctuations between powerfulness and powerlessness are revealed depending on the socio-political context and women's circumstances

Reply to the letter to the editor ‘Abandoning diesel because of health perspectives: are there reasonable alternatives?’ by Vreugdenhil and Mannaerts

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Kwalitatieve analyse: kunst én kunde - dataset bron 05. “A guide to the credit crunch”

Formaat: MP3 Omvang: 2,9 Mb Creator: Robert Peston Online beschikbaar: [01-12-2014] Samenvatting: Audio Slideshow: A guide to the credit crunch. It seems as though the term 'credit crunch' is becoming common parlance. But do you know what it actually is - or how it came about? Spend a few minutes with the BBC's Business Editor Robert Peston, as he explains why we are in the middle of a global financial crisis