Saturday, March 15, 2014
Congressional A (Omni Shoreham)
This article explores the political dynamics of recent welfare reforms in advanced democracies, especially in a group of OECD countries where welfare benefits have not been universally generous. Our sample includes the UK, Ireland, Japan, and South Korea. In these countries, recent welfare reforms have been characterized not only by cuts in traditional benefits, but also by considerable expansion of public services and assistances for growing populations of new risk groups, such as the aged, women, and young people. Overall, we note the reforms have led to an expansion, not retrenchment, of public social welfare in the countries. We explain why and under what circumstances politicians and political parties have been interested in introducing and sustaining these reforms. Our major finding is that once these reforms were initiated, politicians found it electorally risky to withdraw from them. Especially, they were concerned that those voters who were exposed to new social risks were particularly critical of counter-reform efforts. Such a political consideration promoted a broad cross-partisan consensus for reform stabilization in the countries.
