Third Way Reforms: Social Democracy After the Golden Age

by Jingjing Huo

• ISBN13: 9780521518437
• ISBN10: 0521518431
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-04-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book examines the transformation of contemporary social democracy through the concept of 'third way' reforms. It proposes a set of theories about the possibility for continuing social democratic ideological adaptation, for ideologies to overcome institutional constraints in triggering path-breaking innovations, and for social democracy to bridge the insider-outsider divide. Empirically, the book utilizes these theories to account for social democratic welfare state and labor market reforms in nine OECD countries after the end of the Golden Age. Based on the logic of 'public evils', the book proposes that the ideologically contested nature of institutions provides incentives for institutional innovation. Social democratic ideology shapes the fundamental characteristics and content of the third way policy paradigm, and the paradigm's practical implementation continues to be path-dependent on historical institutional settings.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Theorizing the Third Way	p. 7
A Theory of Third Way Ideology	p. 7
A Theory of Positive Externalities of Organization	p. 21
A Theory of Institutional Innovation	p. 26
The Methodology of the Book	p. 49
Constraints on Action: Institutions and Ideas	p. 51
Institutional Settings for Third Way Reforms	p. 51
The Ideological Basis for Third Way Reforms	p. 65
Prelude to the Third Way: The Unemployment Problem and Earlier Responses	p. 84
Expansion in Active Protection	p. 101
Active Labor Market Policies	p. 102
In-Work Incentives	p. 155
Flexicurity	p. 175
Analysis of Active Protection	p. 191
Restructuring Passive Protection	p. 198
Reactionary Compensation	p. 199
Anticipatory Compensation	p. 243
Analysis of Passive Protection	p. 264
Economic and Corporatist Contexts for the Third Way	p. 268
Conclusion: Theories of Possibilities	p. 314
References	p. 324
Index	p. 351
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