Chris Pierson

The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State

PART I PHILOSOPHICAL JUSTIFICATIONS AND CRITIQUES OF THE WELFARE STATE PART II HISTORY PART III APPROACHES PART IV INPUTS AND ACTORS PART V POLICIES PART VI POLICY OUTCOMES PART VII WORLDS OF WELFARE PART VIII PROSPECTS

Developments in British social policy

Introduction N.Ellison & C.Pierson - PART ONE: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON WELFARE THEORY - Introduction - Theory in British Social Policy C.Pierson - The Changing Politics of Social Policy N.Ellison - New Conceptions of Citizenship R.Lister - Social Policy and Human Need M.Hewitt - Social Welfare and Associative Democracy P.Hirst - PART TWO: BRITISH SOCIAL POLICY IN THE 1990s - Introduction - Employment Policy N.Whiteside - Income Maintenance A.McKay - Health Policy S.Nettleton - Education Policy S.J.Ball - The Personal Social Services M.Langan - Housing Policy P.Malpass - PART THREE: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN BRITISH SOCIAL POLICY - Introduction - Social Policy and Social Movements: Race and Social Policy J.Solomos - Social Policy and Social Movements: Gender and Social Policy G.Pascall - Social Policy and Social Movements: Ecology and Social Policy J.Barry - Changing Dimensions of Poverty D.Piachaud - British Social Policy in the European Context L.Cram - Consumerism and the Future of Social Policy M.Cahill - Conclusion N.Ellison & C.Pierson - Bibliography - Index

Australian Antecedents of the Third Way

New Labour theorists have been prone to identify American New Progressivism as the proximate source of ‘third way’ ideas. In this article we argue that, if the focus is on the governing practice rather than on the naming of a governing orientation, a case can be made for seeing Australian Labor in government from 1983 to 1996 as a progenitor of third way thinking and as a specific source of New Labour policy development in a number of areas. Taking Stuart Whites account of the main dimensions of third way programmatic realignment as our guide, we discuss the success of the Hawke/Keating Labor governments in reducing the direct provider role of state, developing new forms of collective provision, reforming the tax system, making social policy more employment-friendly and creating the institutions of an asset-based egalitarianism. We conclude by pointing out that, whilst there are many common themes in Australian Labor practice and New Labor rhetoric, and some evidence of specific policy transfer from one to the other, a plausible case can also be made for seeing many of the policy initiatives of the Hawke/Keating era as a reworking of an older Australian Labor tradition of regulatory state activism.

Learning from Labor? Welfare Policy Transfer between Australia and Britain

In the emergent literature of social policy transfer, very considerable attention has been directed to the processes of policy exchange between North America and the UK. This paper reports the findings of an investigation into the processes of policy transfer between Australia and the UK under the auspices of the Australian Labor Party in the early 1990s. Particular attention is given to the raft of policies promoting more active labour markets and the reform of student funding. Evidence is found of a real, though qualified impact of Australian policy-making mediated by the very different institutional contexts in Australia and Britain.

The New Governance of Education: The Conservatives and Education 1988-1997.

ABSTRACT The governance and management of the English education system has been transformed over the past decade in an avalanche of reforms beginning with the Education Reform Act of 1988. Throughout this period, Conservative governments’ policy was driven by a set of assumptions about choice, markets, standards, public management, accountability and the relationship between competitiveness, economic growth and the education system. Their expectations have not always been vindicated by experience.

Globalisation and the End of Social Democracy

It has been very widely argued that processes of globalisation render traditional forms of social democratic politics impossible. The paper identifies and reviews three key claims in this debate — concerning trade, capital mobility and a new international division of labour. It is argued that, whilst much has changed, this has not always led in the direction anticipated by those who foresee an end to “traditional social democracy”. In particular, the sorts of changes that have taken place do not add up to an endorsement of recent enthusiasm for a “third way”.

Politics of Europe 99 Changing the Guard in the European Union: In with the New, Out with the Old?

No abstract available.

Lost property: What the Third Way lacks

The Third Way has been widely represented by its advocates as an opportunity to allow a progressive and ethical liberal-socialism to re-emerge from beneath the dead hand of a failed statist socialism (of both east and west). It is shown that this story rests upon a systematic misrepresentation of the appropriate intellectual history of the reformist left in Britain in the first half of the twentieth century and reveals the echoing silence on the central question of property that lies at the heart of the Third Way project.

Rousseau and the paradoxes of property

Rousseau’s life and his work are notoriously paradoxical. This certainly applies to his work on property which includes one of the most powerful of all denunciations of private property (the Second Discourse) and an affirmation of private property as ‘the most sacred of all citizens’ rights, and in some respects more important than freedom itself’ (in the essay on political economy in the Encyclopedie). In this paper, I explore the reasons for this seeming paradox, focusing upon Rousseau’s twin concerns with inequality (rather than equality) and sincerity. In the end, Rousseau’s treatment is not entirely consistent, but it does make sense.

Comparing welfare states

Comparing Welfare States: Britain in International Context. Edited by ALLAN COCHRANE and JOHN CLARKE. London: Sage in association with the Open University, 1993. Pp.xiv + 274, index. £35 (hardback) ISBN 0–8039–8845–1, £12.95 (paperback) 0–8039–8846‐X. Women Across Continents: Feminist Comparative Social Policy By LENA DOMINELLI. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991. Pp.x + 351, biblio, index. NP (hardback). ISBN 0–7450–0336–2, £12.95 (paperback), 0–7450–0939–5. Divisions of Welfare: A Critical Introduction to Comparative Social Policy. By NORMAN GINSBURG. London: Sage, 1992. Pp.xii + 228, appendix, references, index. £30 (hardback) ISBN 0–8039–8440–5, £10.95 (paperback) 0–8039–841–3. Capitalist Welfare Systems: A Comparison of Japan, Britain and Sweden. By ARTHUR GOULD. London: Longman, 1993. Pp.xi + 276, notes, bibliography, index. NP. ISBN 0–582–08349–4. New Perspectives on the Welfare State in Europe. Edited by CATHERINE JONES, London: Routledge, 1993. Pp.vii + 251, index. NP. ISBN 0–415–07041–4 (hardbac...