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This innovative volume looks at the welfare state in a historically informed, as well as theoretically and methodologically eclectic perspective. Uniformly excellent chapters highlight the contested institutions of the welfare state by relying on multiple levels of analysis and action, the disaggregation of concepts, and analytical pluralism. This is high-quality scholarship on an important topic that deserves all of our attention. (Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University) All too often, scholars of the welfare state labor in their separate fields without glancing over to see what the person on the other side of the fence is doing. The editors of Welfare Politics Cross-Examined have invited their authors to do some fence-straddling, and the results are “eclectic” in the best sense of the word. Here the Swedish welfare state becomes at once focal point for intensive historical study and point of departure for broader comparative analysis, as authors examine specific policies such as old-age pensions, sickness insurance, parental leave, and social insurance more generally, and test key concepts such as trust, cultural and social capital, and the male breadwinner regime. Revising old theoretical approaches and offering new ones, the essays demonstrate the importance of sensitivity to gender as well as class. Taken as a whole, the volume provides a critical, nuanced, and historicized view of the one welfare state that is so often taken as a model. It will allow students and scholars alike to understand where Swedish social democracy came from – and where it might be going. (Sonya Michel, Professor of History and American Studies, University of Maryland)A review (in Dutch) of this book appeared in Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis 3 (2006) nr. 4
Jaar van uitgave: 2005
ISBN: 90-5260-199-2
Aantal pagina’s: 334
Prijs: € 37,50
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