Radical Welfare State Retrenchment

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. Puzzles, Preliminaries and Prior Vulnerabilities

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Introduction: An Empirical Puzzle

      • Peter Starke

      Pages 3-12

   3. Preliminaries: Measurement, Theories and Strategy of Comparison

      • Peter Starke

      Pages 13-45

   4. Prior Vulnerabilities: Where Would We Have Expected Retrenchment?

      • Peter Starke

      Pages 46-64

3. New Zealand: An Extreme Case

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 65-65

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   2. The First Cutbacks

      • Peter Starke

      Pages 67-93

   3. Radical Retrenchment and Restructuring

      • Peter Starke

      Pages 94-131

   4. Retrenchment in New Zealand: Empirical Pattern, Causes and Consequences

      • Peter Starke

      Pages 132-151

4. Retrenchment in Comparative Perspective

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 153-153

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   2. Putting an Extreme Case in Perspective: Retrenchment Across Countries

      • Peter Starke

      Pages 155-184

   3. Explaining the Cross-National Pattern

      • Peter Starke

      Pages 185-204

5. Conclusion

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 205-205

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   2. Retrenchment and the Limits of Downsizing: Lessons and Policy Implications

      • Peter Starke

      Pages 207-214

6. Back Matter

   Pages 215-266

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This book confronts one of the most fiercely contested issues in current political debates: how is welfare state retrenchment possible in modern democracies despite the welfare state's continuing popular appeal? Starke offers an international comparative analysis of welfare state retrenchment and an in-depth examination of its radical deployments.

• politics
• restructuring
• state

'This is a book which uses qualitative and comparative methods to illuminate current social policy trends...it ends up contributing importantly to our understanding of the factors underpinning the social policy consensus of our times.' - Francis G. Castles, Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University

'As somebody who has been working in social policy for many years, I found this well-written book gave me many new insights. It provides an excellent outsider's view of the strengths, weaknesses and development of the New Zealand social security system.' - Robert Stephens, Social Policy Journal of New Zealand

'This book has much to offer...[it] deserves a prominant place on the bookshelf with studies on retrenchment' - Journal of European Social Policy

• University of Bremen, Germany

  Peter Starke

PETER STARKE is a Senior Researcher at the Transformations of the State Collaborative Research Centre, University of Bremen, Germany. He has published on comparative welfare state change, including work on social policy convergence and the politics of welfare state retrenchment.

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