Social Democracy and Labour Market Policy : Developments in Britain and Germany

ISBN-13: 9780415299770 / Angielski / Twarda / 2003 / 300 str.

Knut Roder

Opis

This text offers a comparative analysis of the changes in ideology and policy programmes on economic policy of the British Labour party and the German SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands). Using an historical institutional approach, Knut Roder focuses on labour market policies - particularly labour market policies - and explains the process of policy change. It reveals the labour party's and the SPD's search for an alternative economic policy approach during their long spell in opposition in the 1980s and 1990s, and illuminates how both parties arrived at the current third way / Neue Mitte rhetoric. Their search for new policies was highly problematic, and led eventually to a delayed, incremental adoption of neo-liberal inspired economic policies. There was fundamental paradigm shift in the 1980s from Keynesianism to neo-liberalism, and the parties slowness to adjust to this shift, Knut Roder argues, was largely responsible for their electoral failure. Similarly, their eventual adjustment to the new paradigm explains their electoral success in the 1990s.

Recenzje

'Knut Roder has written a rich academic book which documents a careful and comprehensive research process. It should be of interest not only to specialists in labour market policy and social democracy, but also more generally to students and scholars in the field of political scientists.' - Per Kongshøj, University of Copenhagen, West European Politics

Spis treści

Introduction: social democracy under pressure, The aims of this book, Methods and the quantitative and qualitative approach to programme analysis, Theoretical aspects: linking historical institutionalism with the decline of the Keynesian paradigm PART I Changing conditions for policy design 1 Challenges of post-war social democracy 2 Inside the party: changing conditions and strategies 3 Institutional constraints on party behaviour: Keynesian v. neo-liberal paradigms PART II The development of labour market policy 4 The development of labour market policy in Britain and Germany 5 Trends in policy convergence: findings from party documents 6 Policy reform and policy change: a comparative perspective PART III Conclusions 7 Converging social democratic strategy

O autorze

Knut Roder teaches Political Economy at Saint Louis University, Madrid Campus and is an Invited Scholar at the Instituto Juan March - Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Ciencias Sociales, Madrid.