The OECD and European welfare states

Abstract:

This work is from the Edward Elgar series Globalization and Welfare, which aims to make an important contribution to the principles of comparative social policy. The book, which is based on the COST Action 15 'Reforming Social Protection Systems in Europe', is mainly comprised of country studies - fourteen in all.

Each study presents a short description of the political institutional context and the historical roots of the respective welfare system, followed by a table covering the main social policy issues. The country experts provide an evaluation of recommendations and policy reforms and the extent to which OECD's ideas have been explicitly addressed in the national policy discourse. To close the work one of the editors presents a comparative account compiled from the findings of the country chapters.

The work will interest scholars, students and researchers engaged in the fields of international business, welfare state policy and comparative politics.

Klaus Armingeon is Chair of Political Science and Director at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Berne, Switzerland. Michelle Beyer is a Research Assistant at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.