The Irish Welfare State in the Twenty-First Century
The Irish Welfare State in the Twenty-First Century

Author: Mary P. Murphy

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-10-04

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1137571381

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This book provides a critical and theoretically-informed assessment of the nature and types of structural change occurring in the Irish welfare state in the context of the 2008 economic crisis. Its overarching framework for conceptualising and analysing welfare state change and its political, economic and social implications is based around four crucial questions, namely what welfare is for, who delivers welfare, who pays for welfare, and who benefits. Over the course of ten chapters, the authors examine the answers as they relate to social protection, labour market activation, pensions, finance, water, early child education and care, health, housing and corporate welfare. They also innovatively address the impact of crisis on the welfare state in Northern Ireland. The result is to isolate key drivers of structural welfare reform, and assess how globalisation, financialisation, neo-liberalisation, privatisation, marketisation and new public management have deepened and diversified their impact on the post-crisis Irish welfare state. This in-depth analysis will appeal to sociologists, economists, political scientists and welfare state practitioners interested in the Irish welfare state and more generally in the analysis of welfare state change.

Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Author: Thomas Piketty

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2017-08-14

Total Pages: 817

ISBN-13: 0674979850

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What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In this work the author analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality. He shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality--the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth--today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values if political action is not taken. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, the author says, and may do so again. This original work reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.

Continuity and Change in the Welfare State
Continuity and Change in the Welfare State

Author: Anthony McCashin

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-10-04

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 3319967797

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​This book offers an analysis of social security in Ireland from 1981 to 2016 - a period of immense economic and social change during which social provisions such as pensions and family benefits were downsized or diluted in many countries. It considers whether this important area of welfare state provision in Ireland changed, and the extent and pattern of change. In the first in-depth account of this aspect of social policy In Ireland, the book sets the welfare state in a historical and comparative context and reviews the impact of globalisation, politics and the financial crash on the scope and generosity of social security. The book will be of particular interest to scholars of welfare state politics and comparative social policy as well as to students of Irish social policy.

Uncovering Food Poverty in Ireland
Uncovering Food Poverty in Ireland

Author: Michael Drew

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2022-05-26

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1447361555

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Michael Drew’s review of the causes and effects of food poverty in Ireland offers the first full-length study of this significant and protracted issue that has been exacerbated by COVID-19. The book brings together the complex picture emerging from interviews with users of food aid. Their pathways into and through food poverty are impacted by the policies and practices of government and employers with wide-ranging implications. The work explores the international landscape of food poverty and situates both experiences and responses in a comparative context. It considers how these results contribute to an understanding of the problem and what action should be taken.

The Sovereign Debt Crisis, the EU and Welfare State Reform
The Sovereign Debt Crisis, the EU and Welfare State Reform

Author: Caroline De La Porte

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-08-09

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1137581794

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This book offers a much-needed analysis of how the European Union (EU) has affected welfare state reforms in the Member States most severely hit by the 2008 economic crisis. Bringing together leading European social policy researchers, it shows that the EU’s responses to the sovereign debt crisis have changed the nature of EU intervention into domestic welfare states, with an enhanced focus on fiscal consolidation, increased surveillance and enforcement of EU measures. The authors demonstrate how this represents an unprecedented degree of EU involvement in domestic social and labour market policies. Readers will also discover how greater demands to attain balanced budgets have been institutionalized, leading to tensions with the EU's social investment strategy. This highly informative edited collection will engage students, social policy practitioners and researchers, scholars of the welfare state and political scientists. “/div>div

Irish Social Policy
Irish Social Policy

Author: Fiona Dukelow

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2017-05-31

Total Pages: 480

ISBN-13: 1447329635

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This 2nd edition of a highly respected textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to Irish social policy. It provides an accessible, critical overview taking account of significant changes over recent years. The book is organised across four key sections: 1: Traces the emergence and development of Irish social policy from its origins to the present 2: Situates the Irish case in the wider context of the politics, ideology and socio-economic factors relevant to the development and reform of welfare states 3: Analyses core social service areas with specific reference to the contemporary Irish context 4: Explores how social policy affects particular groups in Irish society including children, older people, people with disabilities, carers, new immigrant and minority ethnic groups, and LGBT people. Discusses the challenges posed by environmental issues and the importance of a social policy perspective Text boxes used throughout provide policy summaries, definitions of key concepts, along with guides for further reading and discussion. This is a valuable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Irish social policy and allied subjects.

Hidden Voices
Hidden Voices

Author: Joe Whelan

Publisher: Policy Press

Published: 2023-11

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 1447360931

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Welfare states are a major feature of many societies. This book draws on qualitative interviews with people receiving various working age welfare payments in Ireland to analyse welfare conditionality and explore stigma, social reciprocity and the notions of the deserving and undeserving poor.

The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State
The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State

Author: Francis G. Castles

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2012-09-06

Total Pages: 908

ISBN-13: 019162828X

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The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State is the authoritative and definitive guide to the contemporary welfare state. In a volume consisting of nearly fifty newly-written chapters, a broad range of the world's leading scholars offer a comprehensive account of everything one needs to know about the modern welfare state. The book is divided into eight sections. It opens with three chapters that evaluate the philosophical case for (and against) the welfare state. Surveys of the welfare state 's history and of the approaches taken to its study are followed by four extended sections, running to some thirty-five chapters in all, which offer a comprehensive and in-depth survey of our current state of knowledge across the whole range of issues that the welfare state embraces. The first of these sections looks at inputs and actors (including the roles of parties, unions, and employers), the impact of gender and religion, patterns of migration and a changing public opinion, the role of international organisations and the impact of globalisation. The next two sections cover policy inputs (in areas such as pensions, health care, disability, care of the elderly, unemployment, and labour market activation) and their outcomes (in terms of inequality and poverty, macroeconomic performance, and retrenchment). The seventh section consists of seven chapters which survey welfare state experience around the globe (and not just within the OECD). Two final chapters consider questions about the global future of the welfare state. The individual chapters of the Handbook are written in an informed but accessible way by leading researchers in their respective fields giving the reader an excellent and truly up-to-date knowledge of the area under discussion. Taken together, they constitute a comprehensive compendium of all that is best in contemporary welfare state research and a unique guide to what is happening now in this most crucial and contested area of social and political development.

After the New Social Democracy
After the New Social Democracy

Author: Tony Fitzpatrick

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780719064777

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Lively and authoritative, this study offers a distinctive contribution to political ideas. It should appeal to all of those interested in politics, philosophy, social policy and social studies.

European Welfare State Constitutions After the Financial Crisis
European Welfare State Constitutions After the Financial Crisis

Author: Ulrich Becker

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0198851774

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This book examines the specific reforms in social protection that took place during the European financial crisis, while embedding them in a broader human rights and constitutional law framework of nine European countries. Analytical and comprehensive, this is a helpful tool for all legal professionals that deal with crisis-related reforms.