Risk of Social Policy?

<p><em>The Risk of Social Policy?</em> uses a comparative perspective to systematically analyse the effects of social policy reforms and welfare state retrenchment on voting choice for the government. It re-examines twenty elections in OECD countries to show if and how social policy issues drive elections.</p><p>This book contributes to the existing literature by providing an empirical analysis of the electoral implications of social policy. Giger asks the basic research question: What are the electoral consequences of social policy performance and retrenchment? More specifically the following questions are addressed in order to provide a systematic test of the topic: Is retrenchment indeed completely unpopular? Do people punish the government for bad performance in the field of social policy? And what are the political implications of such a punishment reaction; does it affect the government composition? It shows empirically that the risks of welfare state retrenchment to incumbent governments may be lower than previously thought and presents a theoretical framework for re-examining the impact of retrenchment initiatives on election outcome.</p><p>Making an important contribution to studies in political economy and welfare by questioning the assumption that social policy is an inherently controversial policy field in times of elections <em>The Risk of Social Policy?</em> will be of interest to scholars and students concerned with the interplay between government and citizens social policy and voting behaviour and the political economy of welfare.</p>