From the 1980s on, a privatization of labor market-related risks has occurred in the OECD. Governments have cut the generosity of social programs and tightened eligibility rules, particularly for the unemployed. Government Ideology, Economic Pressure, and Risk Privatization: How Economic Worldviews Shape Social Policy Choices in Times of Crisis analyses these curtailments for eighteen countries over the course of four decades and provides an encompassing comparative assessment of the interactive impact of government ideology and economic pressure. It demonstrates that the economic worldviews of governments are the most important factor in explaining why cuts are implemented or not. While ideas of non-intervention in the market underlie cuts in generosity, ideas of equality and fairness are at the heart of stricter eligibility criteria. This book also shows that the impact of the economic pressures often held responsible for the marginalization of politics and government ideology is in fact conditional on the specific ideological configuration.

Alexander Horn is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and Government at Aarhus University. Previously, he took part in the PhD programs of the Berlin Graduate School and Duke University and defended his dissertation at Humboldt University Berlin. He has published in the European Journal of Political Research, Journal of European Social Policy, and Social Science History.

1. Risk Privatization, Economic Crisis, and the Primacy of Politics1.1. Context, Research Problem, and Research Question1.2. The Independent Variable Problem1.3. Addressing the Independent Variable Problem in the Study of Partisan Effects1.4. Way of Preceding and Outline of the Results2. Much Ado about Nothing? Retrenchment versus Resilience2.1. What Is Retrenchment? Searching for a Definition2.2. How to Measure Retrenchment?2.3. Developments and Patterns in OECD Countries2.4. When Is Change Significant? Retrenchment and Its Consequences2.5. Conclusion3. Theoretical and Analytical Framework: What We (Do Not) Know3.1. Three Perspectives on Government Ideology and Retrenchment3.2. State of Research: Inconclusive Evidence, Desiderata, and Problems4. Theoretical and Analytical Framework: Taking Ideology Seriously4.1. The "Independent Variable Problem" in Comparative Welfare Research4.2. Addressing the Problem: Ideology as Cognitive Frame/Belief System5. The "End of Ideology?" Government Ideology over Time5.1. The Debate on Ideological Change and Ideological Convergence5.2. Developments and Patterns: Partial Ideological Convergence6. The Ideological Complexion of Government and Retrenchment6.1. Research Design: Case Selection, Data, and Model Specification6.2. Group-Interest Explanations versus the General Framing Argument6.3. Testing Robustness, Alternative, and Complementary Explanations6.4. Specific Framing Argument: Ideology Moderates Economic Pressure6.5. Crisis, Ideology, and Retrenchment in Germany, the UK, and Sweden6.6. Summary Regarding the Hypotheses: Why Ideology Still Matters7. Ideology Still Matters: Findings, Limitations, and Implications7.1. Summary and Findings7.2. Implications for the "Old" versus "New" Politics Debate7.3. The Contribution(s) of the Study7.4. Limitations of the Study and Avenues for Future Research7.5. Implications for Representative Democracy and the Welfare State Debate8. References9. Annex