Politics Of Social Security Reform Research Articles

Book Review: General: Welfare Policy under New Labour: The Politics of Social Security Reform

Book Review: General: Welfare Policy under New Labour: The Politics of Social Security Reform

Welfare Policy under New Labour: The Politics of Social Security Reform – By Andrew Connell

Parliamentary HistoryVolume 31, Issue 3 p. 496-498 Welfare Policy under New Labour: The Politics of Social Security Reform – By Andrew Connell MARTIN POWELL, MARTIN POWELL University of BirminghamSearch for more papers by this author MARTIN POWELL, MARTIN POWELL University of BirminghamSearch for more papers by this author First published: 15 October 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-0206.2012.00351_9.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume31, Issue3October 2012Pages 496-498 RelatedInformation

Andrew Connell (2011), Welfare Policy under New Labour: The Politics of Social Security Reform. London: I.B. Tauris. £56, pp. 189, hbk

Andrew Connell (2011), Welfare Policy under New Labour: The Politics of Social Security Reform. London: I.B. Tauris. £56, pp. 189, hbk

Welfare policy under New Labour: the politics of Social Security reform

How much freedom of action does an ambitious reforming party have as it moves from opposition to government? Drawing on original research and first-hand interviews, Andrew Connell analyses the development of welfare reform policy following New Labour's ascent to power in 1997 to show how ideas, actors, and structures can constrain policy options. He looks at the contrasting ideas of Frank Field, Minister for Reform in 1997-8, and of Gordon Brown, and shows how Brown's approach eventually came to prevail. The book also includes a unique exposition of Field's political and social philosophy, showing how his consistent Christian socialist beliefs influenced his work as Minister for Reform. Welfare Policy under New will be essential reading for scholars of contemporary politics and social policy and for those interested in New Labour and welfare reform.

Riding the Third Rail: The Politics of Social Security Reform in the Retrenchment Era

In the early 1980s, an aide to Democratic House Speaker Thomas Tip O'Neill declared Social Security to be the Rail of American Politics. Like the electrified rail used to power the trains of the Washington, D.C. Metro, anyone who touched Social Security would face likely (political) death. At the time, this aide was referencing President Ronald Reagan's failed attempt to reform Social Security in 1981. Yet a quarter-century later the adage still seems to apply. Upon his 2004 electoral victory, President George W. Bush declared that he had earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now intend[ed] to spend Reforming Social Security, Bush explained, be a priority of my administration. But despite early favorable polls, a massive publicity campaign, Republican majorities in both houses, and strong ideological commitment to reform, President Bush failed to meet his goal. Over the course of 2005, public support for President Bush's plan (as well as for Bush himself) eroded considerably, and no Social Security bill even made it out of committee, let alone to the President's desk. Bush supporters and privatization advocates were clearly disappointed with the President's failure to reform Social Security; however it is my assessment that they should not have been surprised. In fact, Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Clinton have each seen some of their own reform efforts fail to materialize; and since 1935, there have only been two instances in which a reform involving any level of 'pain' was successful. Riding the Third Rail: The Politics of Social Security Reform in the Retrenchment Era will attempt to analyze Bush's inability to reform Social Security in a broader historical context. The paper will explore similar reform attempts that began under President Gerald Ford, after it became clear that the over-expansion of the U.S. Social Security system had stretched its obligations further than any anticipated revenue. More specifically, I will analyze the roles that elected politicians and issue network members have played in determining both the direction and success of reform attempts. After establishing a historical framework, I will offer a detailed analysis of the recent push to retrench Social Security under President Bush. I will also comment on what I believe to be the prospects for future reform in light of Social Security's history and the current political climate surrounding it. Ultimately, I intend to demonstrate that the nature of Social Security politics is competitive, dynamic, and complex, and that this complexity generally impedes good policy proposals from both sides of the political spectrum.

The politics of pension reform in Peru

To date, the bulk of the research on the politics of social security reform analyzes privatization as a dependent variable and explores the political and economic conditions leading to the implementation of pension reforms. Departing from the tradition of previous scholarship, this article redirects attention to the political consequences of pension privatization by focusing on how pension reform affects social interests, and the effects of those interests on reform processes. The analysis reveals the importance of looking beyond the initial alignment of interests surrounding market reform initiatives to explore the broader political implications. In Peru, the pension reform created concentrated beneficiaries who pushed for the deepening of the reform process at the expense of costs that were widely distributed among workers in the formal sector.

The Political Economy of Population Ageing

Political Economy of Population Ageing By William A. Jackson. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 1998. Pp. vii, 248. $80.00. Population aging joined with the pay-as-you-go way of financing retirement income has for a long time been considered the main cause of the so-called old-age crisis. Yet it is obvious that the current statutory retirement age, together with reduced fertility and increasing longevity, imply a deteriorating dependency ratio over the next decades and in turn the unavoidability of decreasing benefits, or increasing contributions. This phenomenon is even more striking when dealing with the effective instead of the statutory retirement age. We are also told that aging means not just longer life, but also longer life in good health. Thus, why not simply increase retirement age and adjust it to maintain financial balance in social security accounts? Instead, we find that most of the scientific research and advice by international bodies has focused on the development of alternative fully funded schemes. In many countries, entrenched interests make it impossible to seriously postpone retirement age, and more generally reform the system. indication is that the main factor of the oldage crisis is not so much aging and pay-as-you-go financing but rather the resistance of a number of interest groups to needed reforms. These groups are all too often successful in stalling the system, even though (or because) it involves increasing the burden for future generations. When I decided to review the book The Political Economy of Population Ageing, I expected that it would deal with the politics of social security reform, the reasons for the resistance to change, and the preconditions for reform. In fact, Jackson's book deals with the political economy of social security with a focus on the interaction between market and political equilibria. However, in the main, the author understands political economy as economics. In my view, his book should have been entitled The Economics of Population Ageing. This semantic and minor point aside, it is a very good book on the economic implications of population aging, covering a wide range of recent works written on the subject. Jackson adopts the interesting point of view, often argued outside of economics, that although population aging is a complex issue, it is less threatening than often suggested. One of the salient ideas he presents is that alarmism about population aging and the financial future of social security is partly ideological in character. …

Artful Work: The Politics of Social Security Reform

Artful Work: The Politics of Social Security Reform

Artful Work: The Politics of Social Security Reform. By Paul Light. (New York: Random House, 1985. Pp. ix + 255. $8.95, paper.)

Artful Work: The Politics of Social Security Reform. By Paul Light. (New York: Random House, 1985. Pp. ix + 255. $8.95, paper.)

Artful Work: The Politics of Social Security Reform

Artful Work: The Politics of Social Security Reform

The Presidency and Domestic Policy-Making

Light, Paul. Artful Work: The Politics of Social Security Reform. New York: Random House, 1985. Pp. 224. $17.95 hardbound; $9.95 softbound. Lynn, Laurence and David Whitman. The President as Policy Maker: Jimmy Carter and Welfare Reform. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981. Pp. 351. $34.95 hardbound; $12.95 softbound. Shull, Stephen. Domestic Policy Formation: Presidential Congressional Partnership? Westview, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983. Pp. xvii, 218. $29.95.