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In this ground-breaking, two-volume study of the adjustment of advanced welfare states to international economic pressures, leading scholars detail the wide variety of responses in twelve countries. Rejecting any notion of convergence to some kind of neo-liberal orthodoxy, they find that most countries have remained true to the basic features of their postwar model as they have liberalized. Moreover, within different welfare-state constellations, while some countries are still struggling to adjust, others have reached a new sustainable equilibrium. Volume I presents comparative analyses of differences in countries' vulnerabilities and capabilities, the effectiveness of their policy responses, and the role of values and discourse in the politics of adjustment. Volume II presents in-depth analyses of the experiences of Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom as well as special studies in the participation of women in the labour market, early retirement, the liberalization of public services, and international tax competition.
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Welfare and Work in the Open Economy Volume I. From Vulnerability to Competitiveness This page intentionally left blank Welfare and Work in the Open Economy Volume I. From Vulnerability to Competitiveness Edited by Fritz W. Scharpf and Vivien A. Schmidt Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © the various contributors 2000 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0–19–924087–6 ISBN 0–19–924088–4 (pbk.) Preface Since the demise of the cold war with its fear of a nuclear doomsday, ‘globalization’ has become the current specter of public debates in western Europe, threatening to wipe out the achievements of advanced welfare states in providing full employment, social security and greater social equality for their citizens. At the same time, these debates have seen an ever more rapid succession of ‘model’ countries that seemed to have found some miracle solution, and that were displaced by the next one when, on closer inspection, the miracle turned out to be less than perfect. Thus Japan, celebrated as the world leader in industrial productivity, was succeeded by the ‘Rhineland model’ of social consensus and stability, which in turn was forgotten when admiration shifted first to New Zealand's radical liberalization, and then to the ‘great American job machine’, which subsequently was overshadowed by the D