Book Review: Social Policy in Times of Austerity. Global Crisis and the Politics of Welfare
| Author | Constanze Janda,Eberhard Eichenhofer |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271601800405 |
| Published date | 01 December 2016 |
| Date | 01 December 2016 |
410 Intersentia
BOOK REVIEWS
Kevin Farnswort h and Zoë Irving (eds.), Social Policy in Times of Austerity. Global
Crisis and the Politic s of Welfare, Bristol/Chica go: Policy Press, 2015, 186 pp., ISBN
978–1–447319115
Policies of austerity are closely related to socia l policy: when austerity is de ned as
a leading priority, it results in a reduction of jobs in t he public sector, cutbacks in
social bene ts (especially those addressed to the poor and/or the unemployed), the
raising of taxe s, and the privatisation of public institut ions in order to restrict public
expenditure. In their book, Farnsworth and Irving exa mine this interrelationship
between austerity and social policy from a number of di erent angles. e book
comprises six chapters writ ten by Anglo-American authors covering disciplines such
as social polic y, s ociology and political economy.
e starting point of the ana lysis is the global nancial crisis of 2008 that is
identi ed as the outstanding turning point in recent history. It does, in fact,
represent, not one singular event, but rather a s eries of crises with di erent impacts
in all areas of pol icy making. According to the authors, political a nd economic
assumptions have recently changed in such a f undamental way that variations in
welfare state patterns seem inevitable. e editors regard the ‘age of austerity’ as
both a continuation of, and a break from, t he neo-liberal policies of the 1990s, i.e.
the ‘ ird Way’ that had reduced the ta sk of the welfare state to the provision of core
bene ts and service s.
In order to verify this assumption, austerity is examined from several di erent
angles. Chapter 1 (by Kev in Farnsworth a nd Zoë Irvi ng) deals with t he dimensions
and driving forces of auster ity and thus develops a theory of thi s, o en used, but ra rely
analysed, term. Reductions in public expenditu re over the last decade are presented
for di erent countries and contrasted wit h tax increases and rising unemployment
rates a er 2008. However, it does not become clear how and to what extent austerity
is actually lead ing to changes in welfare patterns that could be as substantial as the
‘ ird Way policy’ of the 1990s. Instead, t he authors adduce variations in the electoral
votes leading to a stronger part icipation of both radically le - and right-wing par ties
in policymaking without, however, giving concrete examples of di erent approaches
to social policy t hat might have resulted from these changes.
Chapter 2 (by Michael Hill) outl ines the historica l dimension of austerity. e
author demonstrates how austerity accompan ied the British welfare state in all its
phases since its very beg inning. Before and duri ng World War I, austerity was a n
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