Parties, Elections, and Policy Reforms in Western Europe: Voting for Social Pacts
About this ebook
Using a dataset covering 16 European countries for the years 1980-2006, as well as eight in-depth country case studies, the authors argue that governments’ choice of social pacts or legislation is less influenced by economic problems, but is strongly influenced by electoral competition. Social pacts will be attractive when party leaders perceive them to be helpful in reducing the potential electoral costs of economic adjustment and wage restraint policies. Alternatively, parties may forgo negotiations with social partners and seek to impose such policies unilaterally if they believe that approach will yield electoral gain or minimize electoral costs.
By combining the separate literatures on political economy and party politics, the book sheds new light on the dynamics of social pacts in Western Europe. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, economics, political economy, European Studies and comparative politics.
About the author
Kerstin Hamann is Professor of Political Science at the University of Central Florida. She is the co-author of Institutions and Democratic Development and Assessment in Political Science.
John Kelly is Professor of Industrial Relations, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. His books include Union Organization and Activity and Rethinking Industrial Relations (both published by Routledge).
