Era Of Retrenchment Research Articles

The impact of partisanship in the era of retrenchment: Insights from quantitative welfare state research

Does government partisanship still matter in the era of welfare retrenchment? The comprehensive quantitative research on this question offers contradicting answers. Our meta-analysis demonstrates that the results of published empirical studies depend on a number of the studies’ characteristics. Focusing on studies on retrenchment-prone ‘old social policies’, we show that the single most important factor affecting the results on partisanship is the choice of the dependent variable. In general, studies using entitlements are four times more likely to find partisan effects than studies based on social spending. Furthermore, partisan effects are more pronounced in class-related programmes like unemployment benefits and sick pay than in lifecourse-related welfare programmes such as pensions. Finally, we show a clear decline of partisanship over time. Some recent studies, however, indicate that innovations in terms of operationalisation and measurement of the independent variable may bring new life to the debate on the persistence of partisanship.

The Impact of Partisanship in the Era of Retrenchment. Insights from Quantitative Welfare State Research

Does government partisanship still matter in the era of welfare retrenchment? Although a substantial number of macro-quantitative studies published over the past 15 years have addressed this question, a meta-study which presents the main insights of existing research is missing so far. Focusing on retrenchment-prone ‘old social policies’, the study shows that 1) regarding social spending, partisan effects have considerably decreased since the end of the golden age, with time effects pointing to a gradual decline, 2) entitlements prove to be much more sensitive to partisan effects than social spending and 3) parties still matter when it comes to class related policies but not with respect to life-course related policies. In order to strengthen the validity of these findings, future research has to take into account a number of recently raised methodological issues, first and foremost by applying innovative approaches concerning the conceptualisation and measurement of partisanship.

The German Long-Term Care Insurance Program: Evolution and Recent Developments.

Since 1995, Germany has operated one of the longest-running public programs providing universal support for the cost of long term services and supports (LTSS). Its self-funding, social insurance approach provides basic supports to nearly all Germans. We discuss its design and development, including recent reforms expanding the program and ensuring its ongoing sustainability. The study reviews legislative and programmatic changes, using program data, as well as legislative documents and program reports. The program is widely accepted among citizens and has achieved many of its original goals: ensuring access to LTSS and reducing reliance on the locally-funded safety-net social assistance program, which can be used to cover nursing home costs. It also strengthened the LTSS provider infrastructure and expanded access to home care. Recent reforms have addressed some of the program's key issues: the benefit's decreasing value, the eligibility and benefit structure that largely excluded cognitive impairment, and the program's longer-term financial sustainability-particularly its ability to sustain newly expanded benefits, which provide stronger protections to caregivers, index-link benefits, and more systematically incorporate cognitive impairment via a new assessment system. It has addressed financing issues by increasing premiums, introducing subsidies for the purchase of private insurance, and creating a "demographic reserve fund." The reforms constitute a significant strengthening of the program, remarkable in an era of retrenchment. Overall, the program provides evidence for the financial viability of a social insurance model, although longer-term challenges may yet arise.

Revisiting Pierson’s Work on the Politics of Welfare State Reform in the Era of Retrenchment Twenty Years Later

Revisiting Pierson’s Work on the Politics of Welfare State Reform in the Era of Retrenchment Twenty Years Later

The Big Society in an age of austerity: threats and opportunities for Health Consumer and Patients' Organizations in England

Health consumer and patients' organizations (HCPOs) seek to influence policy. But how are they affected by developments in the policy context and political environment? The article draws on original research into HCPOs in the UK by the authors, including a major survey undertaken in 1999 and interviews with HCPOs and policymakers between 2000 and 2003 as well as a further survey in 2010. It also draws on a review of key government policies on health and the voluntary sector since 1997. Developments in the political environment and policy context have created both opportunities and threats for HCPOs as they seek to influence policy. These include policies to promote choice and competition in public services; support for a greater role for the voluntary sector and civil society in health and welfare (including the current government's 'Big Society' idea); NHS reorganization; changes to the system of patient and public involvement; and austerity measures. Devolution of powers within the UK with regard to health policy and the rising profile of the EU in health matters have also had implications for HCPOs. This analysis raises key issues for future research in the UK and elsewhere, such as how will HCPOs be able to maintain independence in an increasingly competitive environment? And how will they fare in an era of retrenchment? There are also challenges for HCPOs in relation to maintaining relationships in a new institutional setting characterized by multilevel governance.

Structural stress or deliberate decision? Government partisanship and the disempowerment of unions in Denmark

The role of government partisanship in the era of retrenchment is debated. It is argued in this article that partisanship matters for only some aspects of policy. Irrespective of ideological bending, governments accommodate structural pressure as well as short-term electoral interests to keep the economy on track and implement austerity measures in labour market policy that, in effect, reduce union resources and capacity to mobilise. But only governments of the right exploit structural stress to pursue long-term interest in curbing the institutional privileges of unions. Aligning short- and long-term interests is easier for social democratic governments during economic expansion, whereas governments of the right have an easier time aligning interests in periods of structural pressure. By analysing a sample of Danish labour market reforms, this article shows that today social democratic governments still defend the institutional privileges of unions and discusses the comparative significance of the Danish case.

They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back!: Welfare Activism in an Era of Retrenchment

They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back!: Welfare Activism in an Era of Retrenchment

They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back! Welfare Activism in an Era of Retrenchment By Ellen Reese Russell Sage Foundation. 2011. 288 pages. $42.50 cloth

Unsurprisingly, Ellen Reese's account of collective challenges to welfare reform in the 1990s and 2000s does not end in the triumph of welfare activists over the political actors who, with sometimes barely concealed disdain for the recipients of public assistance, sought to make welfare more restrictive by toughening eligibility criteria and imposing new work requirements on recipients. Reese does not claim that a clear-cut victory was within reach of welfare activists. Instead, she seeks to understand the conditions under which activists in Wisconsin and California—particularly in Milwaukee and Los Angeles, the two largest cities of those states—were able to gain some, mostly small-scale, benefit expansions, funding increases and exemptions for particular populations under welfare reform. These efforts were important not only because they made a difference in real people's lives, but also because they sowed the seeds for potentially powerful alliances between welfare activists and two other constituencies: labor and immigrants.

They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back! Welfare Activism in an Era of Retrenchment. By Ellen Reese. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2012. Pp. xvi+286. $42.50.

<i>They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back! Welfare Activism in an Era of Retrenchment</i>. By Ellen Reese. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2012. Pp. xvi+286. $42.50.

Book Review: They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back! Welfare Activism in an Era of Retrenchment

Book Review: They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back! Welfare Activism in an Era of Retrenchment

Book Review: They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back! Welfare Activism in an Era of Retrenchment

Book Review: They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back! Welfare Activism in an Era of Retrenchment

They say cut back, we say fight back!: welfare activism in an era of retrenchment

They say cut back, we say fight back!: welfare activism in an era of retrenchment

The Ninth: Beethoven and the world in 1824

A decade after the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars had given way to an era of retrenchment and repression, 1824 became a watershed year. premiere of the Ninth Symphony, the death of Lord Byron - who had been aiding the Greeks in their struggle for independence, Delacroix's painting of the Turkish massacre of Greeks at Chios and Pushkin's anti-tyrannical play Boris Godunov all signalled that the desire for freedom was not dead. And all of these works and events were part of the flowering of the High Romantic period. In The Ninth, eminent music historian and biographer Harvey Sachs employs memoir, anecdote and his vast knowledge of history to explain how the premiere of Beethoven's staggering last symphony was emblematic of its time - a work of art unlike any other - and a magisterial, humanistic statement that remains a challenge down to our own day and for future generations.

Welfare or workfare?: Partisan re/constructions of Finnish unemployment security in the era of retrenchment

The aim of the article is to analyse changing partisan constructions of unemployment security in Finland during the 1990s. In the article, a corpus of 143 texts comprising partisan statements on un/employment policies is analysed by using Perelman’s (1971/1958) rhetorical design. The focus lies on how the leading parties interpreted state responsibility for labour market failures, the nature of social rights for unemployed persons, and the generosity of unemployment benefits. Were there major reformulations of unemployment security as a reaction to high unemployment, fiscal problems and globalisation? And if so, what kinds of rhetorical argumentation were used in order to legitimate these reformulations? The results show that partisan constructions of unemployment benefits changed in a contractual and reciprocal direction, indicating that elements of so-called workfare rhetoric became rooted in the Finnish political discourse during the Mid-90s. The political elites also moved closer to a narrower interpretation of the concept of social right for unemployed.

Political Partisanship and Welfare State Reform in Advanced Industrial Societies

In this article we evaluate two claims made in recent studies of the welfare states of advanced industrial societies: first, that welfare states have remained quite resilient in the face of demands for retrenchment; and second, that partisan politics have ceased to play a decisive role in their evolution. Addressing the first claim, we present analysis from a new data set on unemployment insurance and sickness benefit replacement rates for 18 countries for the years 1975–99. We find considerably more evidence of welfare retrenchment during the last two decades than do recent cross‐national studies. Second, we examine the “end of partisanship” claim by estimating the effects of government partisanship on changes in income replacement rates in sickness and unemployment programs. Our results suggest that, contrary to claims that partisanship has little impact on welfare state commitments, traditional partisanship continues to have a considerable effect on welfare state entitlements in the era of retrenchment.

Quality care in an era of retrenchment.

SOURCE AND PURPOSE: Constraints in the healthcare delivery system are resulting in unprecedented challenges to quality nursing care. In response to concerns expressed by readers in a JSPN survey, we solicited input from prominent SPN members. Quality care can be sustained through nurses' creativity, flexibility, leadership, and collaboration. The context for quality care is an organizational environment with attention to critical analysis, careful resource utilization, and improved outcomes. Nurses can not only maintain premium standards of quality care but, by assuming leadership, help shape the future of health care.

"Now We Go to Their School": Desegregation and Its Contemporary Legacy

This article explores one southern community's response to the 1954 decision and its subsequent history of dealing with school desegregation. This local perspective is developed using historical data focusing on events immediately following the decision, which provide a context for events leading up to a decision in the mid-1980s to consolidate the community's middle school students to reduce perceptions of inequality based on race. This consolidated school is the focus of the second half of the article, which analyzes the current status of desegregation in the school. Although the school has been desegregated, it is far from integrated. Many racially based inequalities exist and race continues to play an important role in structuring relationships among students, teachers, and parents. Over the last four decades, educators, politicians and the public have fervently debated school desegregation. Since the Supreme Court's landmark decision in v. Board of Education (1954), the mandate to create desegregated schools has forced communities to redistrict, bus, and create opportunities for Black and White students to go to school together. Recently, however, courts have backed away from this mandate. According to Orfield (1996), court decisions including Milliken v. Bradley (1974), Board of Education of Oklahoma v. Dowell (1991), and Missouri v. Jenkins (1995) reflect a quiet but severe erosion of Brown (p. 50). In these cases, the Supreme Court ruled that efforts such as redistricting and busing were unconstitutional if they drew suburban and inner-city children together unless the suburbs could be held directly accountable for contributing to the existing segregation. These recent court decisions, often couched in the rhetoric of reform and increased local control, threaten to undermine the limited progress schools have made toward desegregation (Eaton, 1996), and they underscore what author and activist Jonathan Kozol (1991) claimed is the contemporary era of retrenchment from the commitment to integration represented by Brown. In many cases, Orfield and Yun (1999) suggested, schools have become more segregated than they were 10 years ago: After nearly a quarter century of increasing integration [in the South], the tide turned the other way in the late 1980s. That process of resegregation has continued through the 1996-97 school year. The percent of black students in majority white schools in the South fell from a peak of 43.5% down to 34.7% in 1996, a clear and consistent eight year decline, with integration falling below the level achieved 24 years earlier, in 1972. (unnumbered page) Because there is no universal pattern of resegregation, broad-based studies such as those conducted by Orfield and Yun (1999), Orfield and Eaton (1996), Oakes (1995), Kozol (1991), and others are helpful in mapping the changing patterns of national public opinion on issues of race and segregation. Beyond these studies, however, there is a need to explore resegregation more fully within the community context. At the local level, researchers can gain greater insight into the resegregation process by listening to the stories of parents, teachers, students, and administrators. This approach places the data in a historical and cultural context in which they are more easily understood and more useful in facilitating change. In this article, we attempt to provide such a context by characterizing the current status of desegregation in one Southern middle school in light of its historical position within the community. We refer to the middle school as Indigo Middle School and the community as Davis. These names are pseudonyms adopted to protect the identity of the study's participants. The topic of racial resegregation is sensitive and the parents, teachers, students, and administrators who provided us with information for this study felt more comfortable doing so under the condition of anonymity. Because of our consideration for these individuals, we are unable to provide citations that would reveal Davis's location. …

The Disappointments of Success: Higher Education after World War II

From a historical perspective, Marvin Lazerson gives an account of the unprecedented growth of higher education in the years following World War II, its transformation from a public good to a private benefit that confers economic rewards, and the current problems that it faces during an era of retrenchment. He demonstrates how higher education's postwar success was built on three already established patterns and beliefs: vocationalism, public higher education, and multiple sectors of postsecondary schooling. He then discusses how the world of higher education changed after 1970, when critics began to voice concerns over unchecked expansion, and how its current problems emerged during the 1980s and 1990s, as the costs of attending college began to outpace the economic returns.

Journalism's Status in Academia: A Candidate for Elimination?

In 1983, Dennis warned that journalism education appears to be on the ragged edge of being so hopelessly outdated that its usefulness may soon be severely questioned. 1Since then, other authors have asked whether journalism education is becoming endangered species.2 The question arises because journalism and mass communication (JMC) programs are experiencing multitude of problems. At the same time, severe financial pressures have forced colleges and universities to cut back, even to eliminate some programs and faculty members.3 To learn more about JMC's ability to survive in an era of retrenchment, the authors surveyed more than 600 academicians from all disciplines and all types of colleges and universities. The authors asked the respondents about cutbacks at their institutions, about problems that might justify program's elimination, and about which programs they would eliminate. The results reveal more about JMC's status in academia, the reasons for some of its problems, and the support it can expect from colleagues in other fields. The era of retrenchment. Beginning in about 1990, huge deficits and myriad of new demands forced legislatures to reexamine their priorities and to insist that every state agency, including colleges and universities, increase their accountability and productivity. Private institutions, too, experienced cutbacks. By 1996, Newsweek estimated that only 20 percent of the nation's colleges and universities were healthy financially, and that 60 percent were struggling to adjust.4 Colleges increased their productivity by increasing teaching loads and class sizes, freezing or eliminating some positions, and - in extreme cases -- eliminating entire departments. Examples include: The University of Virginia's 15-campus system eliminated 49 degree programs and hundreds of faculty members. The president of Northwestern eliminated programs in geography, nursing, and evolutionary biology after deciding they could never be first-rate.5 The University of Rochester announced plans to reduce its student body by 20 percent and faculty by 10 percent.6 The University of Pennsylvania eliminated the departments of American civilization and regional science. A third department, religious studies, was also threatened.7 Problems and status. Journalism and mass communication programs face serious internal problems, including low budgets; large enrollments; scarcity of jobs for their graduates; technological changes that require expensive new equipment; and professionals who, at times, seem impossible to satisfy.8Some critics also dislike JMC's structure. Traditionally, programs have offered sequences in reporting, broadcasting, advertising, public relations, photojournalism, magazines, etc. Blanchard and Christ warn that universities with limited resources will no longer tolerate duplicating specializations with separate courses such as writing for television, writing for newspapers, writing for public relations, and writing for advertising. Blanchard and Christ add that the communications revolution (the media's convergence and related trends) is making traditional sequences obsolete.9 Other critics, especially media professionals, dislike journalism and mass communication's emphasis on Ph.D.s and research. Many want schools to hire only experienced practitioners and to place more emphasis on skills courses.10 Some faculty members, on the other hand, warn that JMC's status in academia is dangerously low, and that efforts to implement the professionals' demands may aggravate the problem. To survive and prosper, McCall believes, journalism and mass communication must become a more active partner, even an intellectual leader in the university. McCall explains that universities expect every field to contribute to the academic environment of the entire campus, and that, Typical J-school skills courses directed at vocational preparation can hardly meet this challenge. …

Chicanas/Chicanos at the crossroads: social, economic, and political change

Dubbed the decade of the Hispanic, the 1980s was instead a period of retrenchment for Chicanas/os as they continued to confront many of the problems and issues of earlier years in the face of a more conservative political environment. Following a substantial increase in activism in the early 1990s, Chicana/o scholars are now prepared to take stock of the Chicano Movement's accomplishments and shortcomings--and the challenges it yet faces--on the eve of a new millennium. Chicanas/Chicanos at the Crossroads is a state-of-the-art assessment of the most significant developments in the conditions, fortunes, and experiences of Chicanas/os since the late seventies, with an emphasis on the years after 1980, which have thus far received little scholarly attention. Ten essays by leading Chicana and Chicano scholars on economic, social, educational, and political trends in Chicana/o life examine such issues as the rapid population growth of Chicanas/os and other Latinos; the ascendancy of Reaganomics and the turn to the right of American politics; the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment; the launching of new initiatives by the Mexican government toward the Chicano community; and the emergence of a new generation of political activists. The authors have been drawn from a broad array of disciplines, ranging from economics to women's studies, in order to offer a multidisciplinary perspective on Chicana/o developments in the contemporary era. The inclusion of authors from different regions of the United States and from divergent backgrounds enhances the broad perspective of the volume. The editors offer this anthology with the intent of providing timely and useful insights and stimulating reflection and scholarship on a diverse and complex population. A testament to three decades of intense social struggle, Chicanas/Chicanos at the Crossroads is ample evidence that the legacy of the Movimiento is alive and well. Contents- Part One: Demographic and Economic Trends Among Chicanas/os-1. Demographic Trends in the Chicano Population: Policy Implications for the Twenty First Century, Susan Gonzalez-Baker-2. Mexican Immigration in the 1980s and Beyond: Implications for Chicanos/as, Leo R. Chavez and Rebecca Martinez-3. Chicanas/os in the Economy: Issues and Challenges Since 1970, Refugio Rochin and Adela de la Torre- Part Two: Chicano Politics: Trajectories and Consequences-4. The Chicano Movement: Its Legacy for Politics and Policy, John A. Garcia-5. Chicano Organizational Politics and Strategies in the Era of Retrenchment, Isidro D. Ortiz-6. Return to Aztlan: Mexican Policy Design Toward Chicanos, Maria Rosa Garcia-Acevedo- Part Three: Chicana/o Educational Struggles: Dimensions, Accomplishments and Challenges-7. Actors Not Victims: Chicanos in the Struggle for Educational Equality, Guadalupe San Miguel-8. Juncture in the Road: Chincano Studies Since El Plan de Santa Barbara, Ignacio Garcia- Part Four: Gender Feminism and Chicanas/os: Developments and Perspectives-9. Gender and Its Discontinuities in Male/Female Domestic Relations: Mexicans in Cross Cultural Context, Adelaida R. Del Castillo-10. With Quill and Torch: A Chicana Perspective on the American Women's Movement and Feminist Theories, Beatriz Pesquera and Denise A. Segura