Book Review: The World Politics of Social Investment: Volume 1 & Volume 2 by Julian L. Garritzmann, Silja Häusermann, and Bruno Palier (eds.)The World Politics of Social Investment, Volume II: The Politics of Varying Social Investment Strategies by Julian L. Garritzmann, Silja Häusermann and Bruno Palier (eds.)
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13882627231184705 |
| Author | Abhishek |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Review
Julian L. Garritzmann, Silja Häusermann, and Bruno Palier (eds.), The World Politics of Social Investment:
Volume 1 & Volume 2, Oxford University Press, pp. 488, 2022, ISBN 9780197585245
Julian L. Garritzmann, Silja Häusermann, and Bruno Palier (eds.), The World Politics of Social Investment, Volume II:
The Politics of Varying Social Investment Strategies, Oxford University Press, pp. 456, 2022, ISBN 9780197601457
Reviewed by: Abhishek ,Research Scholar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
DOI: 10.1177/13882627231184705
The need to revisit the social contract and rethink the welfare state to synchronise them with the new
socio-economic reality is being discussed by academia and development institutions alike. The reason
behind this is very simple: the world of work is changing at an ever-increasing speed and its impact is
being felt in all countries, no matter what stage of development they are at. Developed countries are grap-
pling with the new reality of de-industrialisation, causing decline in the percentage of workers with stan-
dardised work relationships with an open-ended work contract, while ageing and changing family
patterns are giving rise to the ‘new social risks’that generate new welfare demands which the traditional
welfare system cannot address (p. 7, Vol. I). Hence, there is a need to redirect welfare states towards a
new paradigm. Similarly, most of the developing countries are or will be passing through the phase of
youth, and will turn it into demographic dividend bulge only if they raise large portions of their low-
skilled but literate workforce to higher skill levels to attract Foreign Direct Investment and enable com-
panies located their operation in these countries to move up the global production chain (p. 200, Vol. I).
The two volumes on the Social Investment State by Garritzmann, Häusermann and Palier are the
result of the research project studying the World Politics of Social Investment that aims to map and
explainthewayinwhichwelfarestatesinavarietyof world regions have been adapted by policymakers
to take into account the shift toward knowledge economies as constitutive economic and social condi-
tions of the twenty-first century. The focus of the book is not on implementation and the effect of social
investment but on the politics (p. 70, Vol. I) explained through seven research questions (p. 26–27, Vol.
I). Volume I engages with explanatory variables - divided into four segments; one, ideas and ideational
dynamics; two, structural socioeconomic changes; three, institutional legacies; and four, interests (and
their respective interactions) (p.26, Vol.I) - that highlights the similarities and trends across different
world regions. Distinguishing between three functions of social investment and three distributive pro-
files, it figures out nine typical social investment policies. Volume II is about the variations in the imple-
mentation of social investment policies in the selected regions –Western Europe and North America,
Central and Eastern Europe, Northeast Asia, and Latin America - and between countries within those
world regions.
Books Review
European Journal of Social Security
2023, Vol. 25(2) 238–239
© The Author(s) 2023
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