Restructuring the Welfare State: Globalization and Social Policy Reform in Finland and Sweden FROM THE PUBLISHER
What happens to extensive and generous welfare states when they are faced with serious economic crisis and the effects of globalization? This thorough analysis of the processes of social policy restructuring in two Nordic welfare states endeavours to answer this and other questions related to their survival in a world of intensifying global competition.
Virpi Timonen investigates both the changes that have taken place in central social policies in the areas of pensions, unemployment policies, social and health servcies, and the political and structural reasons for the pattern of policy change that emerged. A critical evaluation of the roles of globalization, political mechanisms and power relationships in shaping these social policies in Finland and Sweden is also featured.
Welfare state specialists and those seeking to understand welfare states as a central consituent of politics in Nordic countries will find Restructuring the Welfare State to be of great interest. The book will also appeal to academics and researchers in the fields of social policy and comparative politics, as well as public and social policy analysts in international organizations such as the OECD and the World Bank.
SYNOPSIS
The theory of welfare state restructuring that emerges from a particular empirical analysis, says Timonen (U. of Turku, Finland), is highly influenced by the choice of countries to study, and the choice of social policy programs to study within them. So he chooses two countries that represented a particular welfare state model during the late 1980s, before the onslaught of economic crisis. Though he does use some quantitative evidence to back up his arguments, his research methods are generally qualitative and discursive. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
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