This book examines the degree to which international financial markets affect governments' policy choices. It provides empirical evidence as to whether financial globalization creates pressures on governments of developed and developing nations to pursue similar policies and to reduce spending on social policies. The book suggests that financial globalization does not lead to a "race to the bottom" among governments, especially in developed nations. It deploys several types of evidence; the most unique are interviews and surveys of investment fund managers. It also compares contemporary...

When and why have employers supported the development of institutions of social insurance that provide benefits to workers for various employment-related risks? What factors explain the variation in the social policy preferences of employers? This book provides a systematic evaluation of the role played by business in the development of the modern welfare state. Isabela Mares studies these critical questions and demonstrates that major social policies were adopted by cross-class alliances comprising labor-based organizations and key sectors of the business community.

Daniele Caramani describes the transformation of politics from an environment where voting behavior differs greatly between regions to one where it is homogeneous within nations. Looking at long-term evolution, spanning the mid-nineteenth century to the present, Caramani utilizes data on specific constituencies rather than on a national level. He demonstrates that a nation-wide homogeneous dimension emerged from national and industrial revolutions and replaced preindustrial territorial dimensions. His analysis is constructed along the lines of party families and reveals why countries...

Kathleen Thelen explains the historical origins of important cross-national differences in four countries (Germany, Britain, the United States and Japan), and also provides a theory of institutional change over time. The latter is considered a frontier issue in institutionalist analysis, of which there are several varieties emerging from economics, political science, and sociology. Thelen's study contributes to the literature on the political economy of the developed democracies that focuses on different institutional arrangements defining distinctive models of capitalism.

A wonderful book- certain to be the benchmark study of Welfare states in hard times. Pierson's linkage of policy feedbacks and political institutions provides a rich analytical perspective that will guide research in comparative policy for many years to come.

Much recent economic analysis has been devoted to exploring the effects of internationalization on macroeconomic policy options, national competitiveness, and rewards to various factors of production. The central proposition of this volume is that we can no longer understand politics within countries without comprehending the nature of the linkages between national economies and the world economy, and changes in such linkages. The authors examine the effect of internationalization on the policy preferences of socioeconomic and political agents within countries toward national policies and...

Based on a series of controlled comparisons among regimes and states, Valerie Bunce's book argues that two factors account for the remarkable collapse of the socialist dictatorships in Europe from 1989-1992: the institutional design of socialism as a regime, a state and a bloc, and the rapid expansion during the 1980s of opportunities for domestic and international change. Together, these two factors explain not just why socialist regimes and states ended, but also why the process was peaceful in some cases and violent in others.

In this bold, original and persuasive book, Anthony W. Marx provocatively links the construction of nations to the construction of racial identity. Using a comparative historical approach, Marx analyzes the connection between race as a cultural and political category rooted in the history of slavery and colonialism, and the development of three nation states. He shows how each country's differing efforts to establish national unity and other institutional impediments have served, through the nation-building process and into their present systems of state power, to shape and often crystallize...

Based on a series of controlled comparisons among regimes and states, Valerie Bunce's book argues that two factors account for the remarkable collapse of the socialist dictatorships in Europe from 1989-1992: the institutional design of socialism as a regime, a state and a bloc, and the rapid expansion during the 1980s of opportunities for domestic and international change. Together, these two factors explain not just why socialist regimes and states ended, but also why the process was peaceful in some cases and violent in others.

Given the increased openness of countries to international trade and financial flows, the general public and the scholarly literature have grown sceptical about the capacity of policy-makers to affect economic performance. Challenging this view, this book shows the increasingly interdependent world economy and recent technological shocks have actually exacerbated the dilemmas faced by governments in choosing among various policy objectives, such as generating jobs and reducing income inequality, thereby granting political parties and electoral politics a fundamental and growing role in the...