Election Campaigns and Welfare State Change

Democratic Linkage and Leadership Under Pressure

Achim Goerres author Staffan Kumlin author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:10th Aug '22

Should be back in stock very soon

Election Campaigns and Welfare State Change cover

For over three decades, mature European welfare states have been on their way into an austerity phase marked by greater needs and more insecure revenues. A number of reform pressures-including population ageing, unemployment, economic globalization, and increased migration-call into question the economic sustainability and normative underpinnings of transfer systems and public services. And while welfare states long seemed resilient to growing challenges, it now seems clear that they are changing. Election Campaigns and Welfare State Change examines how political leaders and the public respond to reform pressures at a pivotal moment in a mass democracy: the election campaign. Do campaigns facilitate debate and attention to welfare state challenges? Do political parties present citizens with distinct choices as to how challenges might be met? Do leaders prepare citizens for the idea that some solutions may be painful? Do their messages have adaptive consequences for how the public perceives the need for reform? Do citizens adjust their normative support for welfare policies in the process? The answers to these questions affect how we understand welfare state change and representative democracy in an era of mounting challenges.

ISBN: 9780198869214

Dimensions: 240mm x 164mm x 21mm

Weight: 524g

238 pages