| Description |
xix, 228 p. ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. [173]-220) and index. |
| Contents |
Introduction: recasting welfare capitalism in an age of austerity -- The politics of austerity in advanced industrial democracies -- The rise and fall of the postwar golden age and the development of French and German welfare capitalism -- Recasting France's political-economic order: the demise of dirigisme and the turn to the market -- German reunification and the economic and social incorporation of Eastern Germany -- Modernizing the French and German labor markets in an age of austerity -- The shifting politics of French and German social-insurance reform -- New social rights in France and Germany -- Conclusion: French and German welfare-capitalist adjustment in historical and comparative perspective. |
| Summary |
This work employs a sophisticated and original theoretical approach to compare welfare states and political-economic adjustment in Germany and France. Mark Vail examines how and why institutional change takes place and what factors characterize economic evolution when moving from times of prosperity to more austere periods and back again. These respective evolutions involve interrelated changes in social and economic policies and are characterized by political relationships that are continuously renegotiated--often in unpredictable ways. Covering the 1970s to the present, Vail analyzes social and economic reforms, including labor-policy, social-insurance, and antipoverty programs. He focuses on the tactics and actions of key political players and demolishes the stagnation argument that suggests that France and Germany have largely frozen political economies incapable of reform. The result is a compelling reconceptualization of change in both the welfare state and the broader political economy during an age of globalization. |
| Subject |
Welfare state -- France.
|
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Capitalism -- France.
|
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Welfare state -- Germany.
|
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Capitalism -- Germany.
|
| ISBN |
9781592139675 (cloth : alk. paper) |
|
1592139671 (cloth : alk. paper) |
|
