Synopses & Reviews
This book argues that the dramatic post-1970 rise in international capital mobility has not systematically contributed to the retrenchment of developed welfare states as many claim. Nor has globalization directly reduced the revenue-raising capacities of governments and undercut the political institutions that support the welfare state. Rather, institutional features of the polity and the welfare state determine the extent to which the economic and political pressures associated with globalization produce Welfare state retrenchment.
Review
'\"Swank has written a book that will serve as a paragon of how to conduct empirical research in comparative political economy.... This volume is receommended for collections serving upper-division undergraduates and above.\" Choice\"...[an] impressive theoretical and empirical study.... This book offers the most directly and thoroughly political approach of its genre. It is also the most thoroughly explored empirically...\" Political Science Quarterly'
Table of Contents
1. Introduction; 2. Globalization, democracy, and the welfare state; 3. Global capital, political institutions, and contemporary welfare state development: quantitative analysis; 4. Big welfare states in global markets: internationalization and welfare state reform in the Nordic social democracies; 5. Globalization and policy change in corporatist conservative welfare states; 6. Internationalization and liberal welfare states: a synopsis; 7. Assessing long-term impacts: the impact of globalization on taxation, institutions, and control of the macroeonomy; 8. Conclusions: national welfare states in a global economy.