The politics of the new Germany

The Politics of the New Germany takes a new approach to understanding politics in the post-unification Federal Republic. Assuming only elementary knowledge, it focuses on debates and issues in order to help students understand both the workings of Germany's key institutions and some of the key policy challenges facing German politicians. Written in a straightforward style by four experts, each of the chapters draws on a rich variety of real-world examples. Packed with boxed summaries of key points, a guide to further reading and a range of seminar questions for discussion at the end of each chapter, this book highlights both the challenges and opportunities facing policy-makers in such areas as foreign affairs, economic policy, immigration, identity politics and institutional reforms. The book also takes a bird's-eye view of the big debates that define German politics over time, regardless of which party happens to be in power. It pinpoints three key themes that have characterised German politics over the last sixty years; reconciliation, consensus and transformation. Table of Contents: Introduction 1. Germany and the Burden of History 2. Germany’s Post-War Development, 1945-1989 3. Towards German Unity? 4. A Blockaded System of Government? 5. The Party System and Electoral Behaviour: The Path to Stable Instability? 6. Economic Management: The End of the German Model? 7. Citizenship and Demographics: A Country of Immigration? 8. The Reform of the Welfare State? 9. Germany and the European Union: A European Germany or a German Europe? 10. Foreign and Security Policy: A New Role for the Twenty-First Century? 11. Conclusion

Social policy in the UK

Social policy is a very complex area, and this chapter has only offered a brief summary of the most significant recent changes to the UK welfare state. Social policy expenditure has fluctuated over time, with considerable increases through the late 1990s and 2000s, but reductions planned in many areas by the current Coalition Government. The UK welfare state has slowly come to terms with women’s engagement in the labour market, but failed to overcome the persistent inequality between male and female incomes. While competition and choice have been introduced in many areas of the welfare state, their impacts have been varied and contested. Aside from health and education, UK social policy has become increasingly ‘residualised’, with many transfers now means-tested and services like social housing becoming less widely available. At the same time, however, different patterns can be observed across the UK, particularly in the fields of social care and education, where different arrangements apply in different nations. Future developments in social policy are likely to be shaped by the challenge of an ageing population, and the recently hardened public attitude towards particular groups of social policy beneficiaries.

The making of an ideology of the third way:the evolution of christian democracy in Germany (with special reference to 1945-49)

This study investigates the search for the third way in the history of German Christian Democracy. Today, in the United Kingdom, the 'third way' is seen as a new phenomenon, a synthesis of post-war belief in the welfare state and neo-liberal conservatism. Yet it insufficiently acknowledges that the origins of third way thinking, the marriage of social justice with free market economics, of individualism with collective responsibility, are found in the early philosophies of Catholic Social Theory and Protestant Social Ethical Teaching in Germany. This study shows that in the hundred years from the 1840s to the end of the 1940s, there were Catholic and Protestant socio-ethical thinkers and political reformists in Germany who attempted to bridge the philosophical differences between liberalism and socialism, to develop a socio-economic order based on Christian moral values. It will focus on the period 1945-1949, when the CDU was founded as the first interdenominational, Christian party. The study provides the first comprehensive account of the political debates in Christian democratic groups in the Soviet, British, French and American allied occupied zones, also giving equal attention to the contribution from the Protestant wing, alongside the more widely acknowledged role of Catholics in the birth of the CDU. It examines how Christian Democrats envisaged correcting the aberrations of German history, by uniting all social classes and Christian religions in one all-embracing Volkspartei, and transforming party politics from its earlier obsession with sectarian and ideological interests towards a more pragmatic 'third way' programme. The study argues that through the making of its ideology, the CDU modified the nation's understanding of its history, re-interpreted its traditions, and redefined the meaning and perception of established political philosophies. This reveals how the ambiguity of political terminology, and the flexible practice of 'third way' politics, were an invaluable political resource in the CDU's campaign for unity, ideological legitimisation and political power.

The grip of personalization in adult social care:between managerial domination and fantasy

This paper examines the 'ideological grip' of personalization. It does so empirically, tracking the trajectory of personalization through austerity budgeting in one English local authority. In this case, personalization continued to signify hope and liberation even though the most draconian cuts in the Council's history effectively rendered personalization a practical impossibility. This requires critical theorization. Two bodies of theory are interrogated. First Boltanski's sociology of critique, and, in particular, his notion of managerial domination illuminate the way in which change imperatives and crises come to cement ideological formations. Here it is argued that the articulation of personalization with transformation lends itself to managerial domination. It is further argued, though, that while institutional actors may be able to manipulate the symbolic to evade, what Boltanski terms, deconstructionist critique, this cannot entirely explain the hold of this particular discourse. Here, the Lacanian concept of enjoyment is deployed to interrogate its extra-symbolic function and fantasmatic form. Finally, the paper explores the political implications of such affective attachment and, in particular, the guarantee that personalization offers in a period of welfare state decline. © The Author(s) 2012.

Europa i świat zachodni:szkodliwe dla gospodarki niedostrzegane lub lekceważone zjawiska

The paper presents an abbreviated version of the second part of the report on problems of Europe, prepared by a team of teachers at the University of Information Technology and Management in Rzeszow, Poland. We stress therein that the hotly debated problems of the Eurozone and the global financial crisis and its aftermath are, at best, medium-term ones, while real issues Europe faces are of the long-term nature and result from policies pursued for decades. Their consequences are also long-term – and increasingly harmful. Our diagnosis is as follows. Long-term problems related to the increasing burden of the welfare state and its side effects, like the slowing economic growth rate, are not subject to serious policy debates. It applies to both traditional elites from parties belonging to the moderate political spectrum, and to anti-elites on both extremes. Both elites and anti-elites reject the reality as a starting point to developing corrective policy measures. Our economic analysis has revealed that incentives to create wealth in old Western countries have been weakening for a long time. Yet, without deep cuts in public (especially welfare) expenditures and accompanying institutional reforms, economic performance of European (and generally Western) economies is going to worsen over time. The chances of continued stagnation in the next 5–10 years are very high. Finally, we look at the socio-psychological behavioral framework of the ever-expanding welfare state. We point at the phenomenon of the learned helplessness which appears as a result of the people’s lacking perception of linkages between their actions and economic results of these actions. We interpret it as a consequence of the welfare state. It further weakens the prospects for successful reforms and the resultant avoidance of the long-term stagnation.

Understanding the transformation of Germany's CDU

This book analyses the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), one of Europe’s most successful and influential political parties. The CDU might have been expected to struggle in the circumstances of a more diverse, secular reunified Germany, yet it has prospered to an extent almost unparalleled in western Europe. Chapters consider the CDU’s policies (the factors driving them, their variation across Germany, the relationship to women, and the welfare state), its organisational development and change, and its position within the party system. Contributors particularly emphasise the diversity of the CDU, and the way it varies across Germany’s regions. The CDU is compared to other Christian Democratic parties, and special consideration is given to the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU). This book was published as a special issue of German Politics.

Négy jellegzetesség. A magyar fejlődés politikai gazdaságtani megközelítésben. 1. rész = Four characteristic features. Development in Hungary from the aspect of political economy. First Part

A két részből álló cikk a magyarországi reformfolyamat és posztszocialista átalakulás négy olyan jellegzetességét emeli ki, amelyek megszakítás nélkül, a politikai szférában bekövetkezett rendszerváltást követően is, folyamatosan jellemezték az elmúlt harminc év fejlődését: a lakosság anyagi jólétének prioritása, erős paternalista jóléti állam, a reformfolyamat és átmenet fokozatossága és a politikai nyugalom. Az 1995. március 12­én bejelentett stabilizációs program - amennyiben megvalósul - jelenthet elmozdulást ezektől a jellegzetességektől. A cikk politikai gazdaságtani megközelítésben vizsgálja, hogy miért alakult ki ez a négy jellegzetesség, miképpen hatottak azok egymásra, milyen kedvező és kedvezőtlen hatásokat fejtettek ki. Az első rész az 1956­os forradalom hatásából kiindulva politikatörténeti áttekintést ad, majd a mai jólét, biztonság és nyugalom prioritását és a társadalmi adósság felhalmozódását, végül a stabilizációs program gazdasági és politikai hatásait elemzi. / === / The article, consisting of two parts, emphasizes four characteristic features of the Hungarian reform process and the post­socialist transformation, which, uninterruptedly, characterized the development over the last thirty years, even after the systemic change in the political sphere. These were: priority of the material welfare of the population, a strong, paternalistic welfare state, the gradual progress of the reform process and the transition, as well as political calmness. The stabilization programme, announced on March 12,1995, may imply - if it materializes - a shift away from these characteristics. The article investigates, from the aspect of political economy, why the four characteristic features had developed, how they affected each other and what were their advantageous and disadvantageous impacts. Setting out from the impacts of the 1956 revolution, the first part gives an overview of political history and then analyses the priority of today's welfare, security and calm as well as the accumulation of societal debt and, finally, the economic and political impacts of the stabilization programme.

Discovering complex interrelationships between socioeconomic status and health in Europe: A case study applying Bayesian Networks

Studies assume that socioeconomic status determines individuals’ states of health, but how does health determine socioeconomic status? And how does this association vary depending on contextual differences? To answer this question, our study uses an additive Bayesian Networks model to explain the interrelationships between health and socioeconomic determinants using complex and messy data. This model has been used to find the most probable structure in a network to describe the interdependence of these factors in five European welfare state regimes. The advantage of this study is that it offers a specific picture to describe the complex interrelationship between socioeconomic determinants and health, producing a network that is controlled by socio demographic factors such as gender and age. The present work provides a general framework to describe and understand the complex association between socioeconomic determinants and health.

Ireland and the global economic crisis: one island, two different experiences

In this chapter, Ó hAdhmaill argues that responses to the global economic crisis which emerged in 2008 reflected a dominant ideological discourse, with ‘austerity’ being a tool in a wider agenda to reassert neoliberalist thinking in the global economy and welfare provision in the richer countries. In Ireland, North and South, however, the experience of, and responses to, the crisis and ‘austerity’ were different, reflecting different social, economic, and political contexts and influences, as well as different levels of democratic control. Ó hAdhmaill outlines some of these differences and argues that, while democratic control in smaller jurisdictions may be limited by the ‘real rulers’ of the world, global capital, people still have ‘agency’ and do not have to be mere passive observers of unfolding events.

El Banco Mundial y su fetiche, la Educación Básica

A partir de la década del noventa, con la consolidación del Estado Neoliberal, se disipa el carácter de derecho social de la educación que había tenido en tiempos del Welfare State o Estado Providencia y, después de atravesar un proceso de metamorfosis, se convierte en un servicio o bien comercializable. En este contexto, la política educativa de los Estados que se inscriben dentro del capitalismo dependiente, es pérfidamente impuesta por los "think tanks" de los organismos de crédito y asesoramiento internacionales, entre ellos, el Banco Mundial. Esta entidad pretendidamente omnisciente plantea una nueva concepción de Educación Básica que constituiría aquel tramo en el que se imparten "lectura y escritura, aritmética básica y solución de problemas" a la que adhieren las burocracias ministeriales locales, con la implementación de los Núcleos de Aprendizaje Prioritarios (NAP). Con esta escueta provisión de saberes se lograría una fuerza laboral más apta, la adopción de prácticas neomalthusianas y sanitarias generales, lo que en conjunto acarrearía la reducción de la pobreza. En este sentido este dispositivo no introduce novedad alguna sino que implica el más llano reciclaje de la Teoría del Capital Humano emergida en la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Sin embargo, el aditamento dentro de estas "recomendaciones" estriba en la imposición de un nuevo artefacto de financiamiento donde la prioridad concedida a la Educación Básica implica la desinversión de los otros niveles educativos. Más allá de esta retórica, el sentido solapado es la conformación de un sujeto disciplinado y un orden social inmune a los conflictos generados por la desigualdad. Esta maquinaria de dominación se complementa con el empobrecimiento de la formación docente, reducida a la adquisición de un repertorio de técnicas de enseñanza. En consecuencia, se le enajena al educador la posibilidad de tomar decisiones autónomamente que involucra el trabajo con el conocimiento

El Banco Mundial y su fetiche, la Educación Básica

A partir de la década del noventa, con la consolidación del Estado Neoliberal, se disipa el carácter de derecho social de la educación que había tenido en tiempos del Welfare State o Estado Providencia y, después de atravesar un proceso de metamorfosis, se convierte en un servicio o bien comercializable. En este contexto, la política educativa de los Estados que se inscriben dentro del capitalismo dependiente, es pérfidamente impuesta por los "think tanks" de los organismos de crédito y asesoramiento internacionales, entre ellos, el Banco Mundial. Esta entidad pretendidamente omnisciente plantea una nueva concepción de Educación Básica que constituiría aquel tramo en el que se imparten "lectura y escritura, aritmética básica y solución de problemas" a la que adhieren las burocracias ministeriales locales, con la implementación de los Núcleos de Aprendizaje Prioritarios (NAP). Con esta escueta provisión de saberes se lograría una fuerza laboral más apta, la adopción de prácticas neomalthusianas y sanitarias generales, lo que en conjunto acarrearía la reducción de la pobreza. En este sentido este dispositivo no introduce novedad alguna sino que implica el más llano reciclaje de la Teoría del Capital Humano emergida en la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Sin embargo, el aditamento dentro de estas "recomendaciones" estriba en la imposición de un nuevo artefacto de financiamiento donde la prioridad concedida a la Educación Básica implica la desinversión de los otros niveles educativos. Más allá de esta retórica, el sentido solapado es la conformación de un sujeto disciplinado y un orden social inmune a los conflictos generados por la desigualdad. Esta maquinaria de dominación se complementa con el empobrecimiento de la formación docente, reducida a la adquisición de un repertorio de técnicas de enseñanza. En consecuencia, se le enajena al educador la posibilidad de tomar decisiones autónomamente que involucra el trabajo con el conocimiento

El Banco Mundial y su fetiche, la Educación Básica

A partir de la década del noventa, con la consolidación del Estado Neoliberal, se disipa el carácter de derecho social de la educación que había tenido en tiempos del Welfare State o Estado Providencia y, después de atravesar un proceso de metamorfosis, se convierte en un servicio o bien comercializable. En este contexto, la política educativa de los Estados que se inscriben dentro del capitalismo dependiente, es pérfidamente impuesta por los "think tanks" de los organismos de crédito y asesoramiento internacionales, entre ellos, el Banco Mundial. Esta entidad pretendidamente omnisciente plantea una nueva concepción de Educación Básica que constituiría aquel tramo en el que se imparten "lectura y escritura, aritmética básica y solución de problemas" a la que adhieren las burocracias ministeriales locales, con la implementación de los Núcleos de Aprendizaje Prioritarios (NAP). Con esta escueta provisión de saberes se lograría una fuerza laboral más apta, la adopción de prácticas neomalthusianas y sanitarias generales, lo que en conjunto acarrearía la reducción de la pobreza. En este sentido este dispositivo no introduce novedad alguna sino que implica el más llano reciclaje de la Teoría del Capital Humano emergida en la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Sin embargo, el aditamento dentro de estas "recomendaciones" estriba en la imposición de un nuevo artefacto de financiamiento donde la prioridad concedida a la Educación Básica implica la desinversión de los otros niveles educativos. Más allá de esta retórica, el sentido solapado es la conformación de un sujeto disciplinado y un orden social inmune a los conflictos generados por la desigualdad. Esta maquinaria de dominación se complementa con el empobrecimiento de la formación docente, reducida a la adquisición de un repertorio de técnicas de enseñanza. En consecuencia, se le enajena al educador la posibilidad de tomar decisiones autónomamente que involucra el trabajo con el conocimiento

The Olivia Framework:Concepts for Use in Finely-Grained, Integrated Social Policy Analysis (Working Paper 45)

The Olivia framework is a set of concepts and measures that, when mature, will allow users to describe, in a consistent and integrated manner, everything about individuals and institutions that is of potential interest to social policy. The present paper summarizes the current stage of development in achieving this highly ambitious goal. The current version of the framework supports analysis of social trends and policy responses from many perspectives: • The point-in-time, resource-flow perspectives that underlie most traditional, economics-based policy analysis. • Life-course perspectives, including both transitions/trajectories analysis and asset-based analysis. • Spatial perspectives that anchor people in space and history and that provide a link to macro-analysis. • The perspective of the purposes/goals of individuals and institutions, including the objectives of different types of government programming. The concepts of the framework, which are all potentially measurable, provide a language that can support integrated analysis in all these areas at a much finer level of description than is customary. It provides a language that is especially well suited for analysis of the incremental policy changes that are typical of a mature welfare state. It supports both qualitative and quantitative analysis, enabling some integration between the two. It supports citizen-centric as well as a government-centric view of social policy. In its current version, the concepts are most highly developed as they related to social policies as they related to labour markets, equality and social integration, care-giving, immigration, income security, sustainability, and social and economic well-being more generally. However the paper points to likely extensions in the areas of health, justice and safety.

Waged domestic work in Argentina: the regulation of care provision

This paper addresses the condition of domestic work in Argentina, in a perspective that draws from the literature on care work. In this approach, domestic work can be interpreted as one of the mercantile forms in which care work is socially organized, due to the persistence of the traditional sexual division of labor and the weakness of public policies. From these considerations, I develop a quantitative study on the levels of informality, precarity, and wage inequality that characterize domestic work in that country. Thereafter, I discuss the main measures adopted by the Argentine government since 2003, with the goal of reducing legal discrimination of domestic workers and promoting their formalization. On this basis, the paper highlights the advances in the recognition of domestic workers’ labor rights, while emphasizing how social and cultural restraints still permeate labor relations in this sector.

The Worsening of the employment and work conditions and its relationship to the self-perceived health in European working population. Relevance and effects of the latest socioeconomic crisis

The recent crisis of the capitalistic economic system has altered the working conditions and occupations in the European Union. The recession situation has accelerated trends and has brought transformations that have been observed before. Changes have not looked the same way in all the countries of the Union. The social occupation norms, labour relations models and the type of global welfare provision can help underline some of these inequalities. Poor working conditions can expose workers to situations of great risk. This is one of the basic assumptions of the theoretical models and analytical studies of the approach to the psychosocial work environment. Changes in working conditions of the population seems to be important to explain in the worst health states. To observe these features in the current period of economic recession it has made a comparative study of trend through the possibilities of the European Working Conditions Survey in the 2005 and 2010 editions. It has also set different multivariate logistic regression models to explore potential partnerships with the worst conditions of employment and work. It seems that the economic crisis has intensified changes in working conditions and highlighted the effects of those conditions on the poor health of the working population. This conclusion can’t be extended for all EU countries; some differences were observed in terms of global welfare models.