The moral economy of welfare states : Britain and Germany compared / / Steffen Mau

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910451125303321
• Autore: Mau Steffen <1968, >
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: London ; ; New York : , : Routledge, , 2003
• ISBN: 1-134-37055-5; 0-415-75859-9; 1-280-07396-9; 0-203-59061-9
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (249 p.)
• Collana: Routledge/EUI studies in the political economy of welfare ; ; 5
• Disciplina: 330.12/6
• Soggetti: Welfare economics; Welfare state; Electronic books.; Great Britain Social policy; Germany Social policy
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. [208]-231) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Introduction -- Self-interest and pocket-book attitudes -- Beneficial involvement -- Rising demands and ungovernability -- Legitimation crisis: value for meaning -- The welfare backlash and a rational opposition -- Entrenched interests and 'varieties of capitalism' -- Policy reforms: designing institutions for knaves -- The admixture of motives: broadening the perspective -- Preference formation beyond self-interest -- Institutions: material incentives and social norms -- The moral economy of welfare state institutions -- The homo reciprocus -- Policy designs and the repertoire of motives -- Summary -- An analytical framework -- Welfare institutions and public attitudes -- Survey data and methods -- The state of welfare -- A comparative framework -- The welfare legacy in Britain -- Laissez-faire and new liberalism -- Moving towards a Beveridgean social service state -- A welfare consensus, social rights and symptoms of crisis -- The neo-conservative era -- The activating welfare state -- The welfare legacy in Germany -- Conservative authoritarianism -- The social market ; economy -- Party responses to institutional drawbacks -- The impact of unification and new pressures on the welfare state -- Welfare regimes and their moral economies: some preliminary thoughts -- The logic of popular support for welfare schemes and their objectives -- Redistribution in our heads: givers and takers -- Interests and interpretations -- Assessing the redistributive impact -- A legitimate agenda for redistribution? -- Paying taxes: value for money and the fairness issue -- Burdensome taxation and the disapproval of redistribution -- Conclusion.
• Sommario/riassunto: This book investigates why people are willing to support an institutional arrangement that realises large-scale redistribution of wealth between social groups of society. Steffen Mau introduces the concept of 'the moral economy' to show that acceptance of welfare exchanges rests on moral assumptions and ideas of social justice people adhere to. Analysing both the institution of welfare and the public attitudes towards such schemes, the book demonstrates that people are neither selfish nor altruistic; rather they tend to reason reciprocally.