Book Review: Governing Social Risks in Post-Crisis Europa
| Author | Eberhard Eichenhofer |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271601800106 |
| Published date | 01 March 2016 |
| Date | 01 March 2016 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
European Jour nal of Social Sec urity, Volume 18 (2016), No. 1 87
EU coordination rules, wh ile also providing a n important source of information for
legal researchers and polic y analysts.
Tom isl av S oko l
Zagreb School of Economics and Management
Tomislav Sokol received his LL.B degree (magna cum l aude) from the Faculty of Law at
the University of Zagreb in 2006 . He nished his LL .M. studies in EU law at KU Leuven
Faculty of Law (magna cum laude) in 2009 and defended hi s Ph.D. on cross-border
health care in the EU at KU Leuven Faculty of Law in 2014. Currently, he is the Head
of the Department of Legal Studies at Zagreb School of Economics and Management,
where he teaches several courses, including one on European Union law. His research
interests include EU law, social security law with a special emphasis on social security
coverage of health care, and health law.
Colin Crouch, Governing S ocial Risks in Post-Cr isis Europa, Cheltenham U K:
Edward Elgar, 2015, 306 pp., ISBN 978–1–78100–400–5
e book gives a broad and in-depth analysis of welfa re states in Europe, above all
in the a ermath of the nancial crisis of 20 08 and its economic and social impact.
A wide spectrum of questions is dealt with and a whole series of comparative data
is presented. e leading question is how uncertainty is tackled by social polic y ‒
which is de ned very broadly to include not only the traditional sphere of welfare
bene ts but the whole spectrum of employment policy, labour market governance a nd
industrial relations.
At a theoretical level, the relat ionship between wages and consu mption is examined.
On the basis of the ty pologies of various welfare regimes, an ana lysis of economic
governance and class relations is presented. e di erent roles of trade unions are
carefully examined and broadly i llustrated. Further observat ions refer to di erences
in purchasing power, income and asset dist ribution, social spending, private debt and
the role of active labour market progra mmes and expenditures. On this very broad
basis, a number of conclusions address the quest ion of the divergent welfare state
arrangements wit hin Europe and their prospects. It does not unvei l a broad and clear-
cut trend, but it does show a series of very special reg ional developments, which are
associated with speci c economic challenges faced by individual countries. Seen in
light of an enormous amount of comparative dat a, the results are dispersed ‒ a lthough
they g ive some ins ight into a se ries of spec i c developments in a number of countries,
it is hard to identify a Europe-wide patt ern of response to the economic crisis and its
social impacts.
What are the bene ts from reading this book? It can be recommended as an
attempt to provide a comprehensive account of social policy developments in a wide
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