Handbook Of West European Pension Politics, The

Description:
The Handbook of West European Pension Politics provides scholars, policy-makers and students with a complete overview of the political and policy issues involved in pension policy, and well as case studies of contemporary pension politics (1980 to present) in 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The book is suitable as a text for courses in comparative politics, European Studies, social policy, comparative public policy and public administration. Each chapter is written by an expert on pension politics and is presented in a standardized format with standardized tables and figures that describe: political institutions; government coalitions, parliamentary and electoral majorities; the party system; the pension system; proposed and enacted pension reforms.

Review:
...represents a unique source of comparable data and a promising step beyond the traditional contributions on the 'stickiness' of pension programmes. Political Studies Review

Table of Contents:
1. Editors Introduction: the Dynamics of Pension Politics; PART I. SINGLE VETO PLAYER GOVERNMENTS; NO VETO POINTS; 2. United Kingdom: pension politics in an adversarial system; 3. Greece: political competition in a majoritarian system; 4. 4. France: the importance of the electoral cycle; PART II. MULTIPLE VETO POINTS; 5. Switzerland: the impact of direct democracy on a multipillar system; 6. Finland: labor markets against politics; 7. Belgium: linguistic veto players and pension reform; PART III. MANY PARTISAN VETO PLAYERS; 8. Sweden: after social democratic hegemony; 9. Italy: a narrow gate for path-shift; 10. Denmark: a 'World Bank' pension system; PART IV. MODERATE VETO POINTS AND VETO PLAYERS; 11. Spain: between majority rule and incrementalism; 12. Austria: From electoral cartels to competitive coalition-building; 13. Portugal: in search of a stable framework; 14. Germany: beyond policy gridlock; PART V. CLOSED VETO POINTS, MODERATE VETO PLAYERS, UNUSUAL ELECTORAL SYSTEMS; 15. The Netherlands: political competition in proportional system; 16. Ireland: pensioning the Celtic tiger; 17. Luxembourg: an electoral system with panache; 18. Appendix: pension systems in western europe