Review of Governance of Welfare State Reform: A Cross National and Cross Sectoral Comparison of Policy and Politics: IRENE DINGELDEY and HEINZ ROTHGANG (eds)

Abstract

The book departs from the conventional fixation on patterns of expenditure among OECD countries for explaining cross-national difference by showing how governance regimes and political processes can help explain differences and similarities in specific policies or among countries. It is both innovative and unique to use the concept of governance to investigate a variety of social policies under reform and the political processes that undergird them, as well as associated shifting models of interaction among actors. The book is not only empirically grounded but it also raises new questions about convergence and divergences of welfare policies in the wake of the reforms that started in the 1980s and points to alternative avenues for assessing and comparing changes in welfare states or programs. In all the countries and policy areas examined in the book, the authors are unanimous in concluding that significant changes have occurred both within and beyond the post-war consensus. Overall, Governance of Welfare State Reform contains well-researched and useful analyses for scholars and policy-makers who are interested in health care, pensions, labour markets, education, ideational analysis, politics of social policy reforms, and models of governing social programs across different national settings